
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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UPERtTWISE: 



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qA poetic I^omancG, 



IN EIGHT CANTOS. 



By H; M. DuBosk. 



" Then, in a monnent, she put forth the charm 
Of woven paces and of weaving hands ; 
And in the hollow of the oak he lay as dead, 
And lost to life and use and name and fame. 

"I hold it truth with him who sings 
To one clear harp in divers tones, 
That men may rise on stepping-stones 
Of their dead selves to higher things." 

—Baron Tennys 




PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 

PrBLisHiNG House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

J. D. Barbee, Agent, Nashville, Tenn. ? " 

1889. 






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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, 

ByH. M. DuBose, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



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PREFATORY. 



" Poetry is itself a thing of God; 
He made His pi-ophets poets." 

I KNOW not whether or not this message of mine be worthy the 
noble appellation of poetry. It rests with my countrymen to 
judge of its title to a place in the book of inspired song. But 
this I say, God taught it me. Ten years and more ago, amid 
humble labors in a village beside the Father of Waters, and when 
the 8ha(?.ow of the pestilen9e that walketh in darkness was but 
newly lifted from the hearts of a smitten people, my hand was 
first set to the task. The resonant voices of the onward tides 
taught me the numbers of a hitherto untried scale ; a peaceful 
memory, brought from my childhood home in the pine-sentried 
hills, kept fresh in my soul the love of nature's reverberant mel- 
odies and her awful hushes of sacred melancholy ; and the sad, 
sad story of unmerited bitterness that blighted a life more beau- 
tiful than "the fringed lilies" was the inspiration of this my 
lowly verse. H. M. DuBose. 

Los Angeles, Cal., October, 18S9. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The conscience of Christendom is becoming more and more 
sensible of the appalling evils that flow from the use of intoxi- 
cating liquors. Step by step, advancing in every legitimate path 
that is opened up, the enlightened judgment of the Christian 
world is taking a forward position, and demanding the rescue of 
fallen humanity from exposure to the unspeakable horrors of the 
drunkard's career. 

Every contribution to this much-desired result is a subject of 
welcome and congratulation to society. Poets have sung the 
pleasures of the wine-cup;, why should not the genius of the 
poet devote itself to the warning of the exposed and endan- 
gered, and to the reclamation of the enslaved? Can the inspi- 
ration of Parnassus be employed in a nobler service? 

We have displayed in this poem, " Rupert Wise," the fearful 
truth that "no man liveth unto himself," even in respect to those 
things that are usually esteemed the chartered rights of personal 
liberty. Has any man the right to perpetuate, in his own offspring, 
the detestable vice of drunkenness ? Has any man the right to 
acquire habits that may eventuate in the ruin of those who 
become the legatees of his errors and his crimes ? The possibility 
of transmitting the taint of slavish bondage to the appetite for 
drink is the foundation of the argument in " Rupert Wise." This 
remorseless spell, weaving an enchantment too strong for earthly 
hopes, ambitions, or obligations to destroy, prepares the way for 
the darkness of the eternal night. 

At the moment of despair, when the vision of female loveli- 

(5) 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

ness, of earthly peace and quiet, love and joy, is about to die 
away in the fumes of the bottomless pit, the strong arm of the 
Eedeemer of man reaches down to the verge of ruin, and snatches 
the brand from the eternal burning. The lesson is one that should 
sink deep into the heart of the reader. There is no vicious appe- 
tite that may not be conquered by the power of the grace of God 
manifested in Jesus Christ our Lord. "I can do all things 
through Christ which strengtheneth me." This truth forms the 
sequel. 

The poem, as a work of art, is before the reader. The author 
makes his venture before the public unheralded by critics or by 
interested advocates, but if the "divine afflatus" of the true 
poet has fallen upon his spirit, and typed itself in this work of his 
pen, the candid judgment of the reader will indorse that of the 
editor of this volume. We believe that there is superior merit 
in this poem, and the promise of the higher work that is yet 
to be. W. P. Harrison. 

Nashville, Tenn., October 18, 1889. 




PROEMfl. 



When early morn had lift its veil 
Of woven mist from off a hill 
That all my sight with dreams did fill, 

Half-way its slope, one calm and pale 

I saw beneath the virgin shade. 
Strange garb was his, but noble all 
His bearing seemed. Swift at his call 

I moved him near, and deference paid 

To that mild air of worth he wore. 
Exj^ectant wonder held my soul 
What time his hands unlaced a scroll, 

That wizard trace of genius bore. 

Wild joy I felt when that his name 

Was breathed — no other than the bard 
Who that Prince Arthur evil starred 

Had sung to everlasting fame. 

Brought forth from Alma's hidden serine 
That antique roll of goodly knights 
Of Tanaquil, and those six lights 

Of Faery Queen that ceased to shine. 

" Swear on this scroll," he gravely said, 
"As sware Sir Guyon on his shield, 
By castle wall, in wood or field, 

Fierce vengeance on the Paynim head, 

(7) 



PROEMA. 

"And that Actrasia, sorceress vile, 
Who Modrant and Amavia slew, 
Him with the cup's enchanted dew. 

Her through despair and sorceress' wile. 

"Acrasia lives with other name ; 

Swear vengeance here, and move thou hence 
That others swear, withal, defense 

Of faithful love and manhood's frame." 

I sware, and heard his blessings spoke, 
And saw him fade, like mist, away. 
The whiles, with oaten pipe and lay, 

Shepherds the infant day awoke. 




GAWTO FIRST. 



I. 

f T ARP of the Southland new ! that sad hath slept 

j Smce that wild singer, 'neath the whisi)ering leaves 

That near the river dark their cadence wept, 

Awoke his last and plaintive song ; whose sheaves 
Of truth and garlands, gleaned through morns and eves 
•Of sorrow filled with tread of coming death, 

He consecrated unto God — as heaves 
The reedy bank to Autumn's earliest breath, 
Awake, assist my song of love and vanquished death ! 

The soul that breathes this prayer thy mazes o'er 
Breathes likewise full its ardent wish abroad, 

E'en to the utmost limit — line and shore — 

Of this predestined land, made one since strode 
In hate the form of war with dark inroad 

Through sunny vales whose circles peace had hung 
With clamb'ring vines and graced with villas broad 

And smiling fields, where late, when morn was young, 

The reaper's harvest lay in rippling echoes rung. 

Once more awake, though but to weep anew ! 
That voice befits thy strings, befits whose hand 

—^ '. (^ 



10 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Would teach thy strings to throb hope's measures through. 
Ah, welladay ! that voice befits the land 
That mourns her youngest, greatest bard ; the band 

That Avalked with him through fire to martial strains, 
And pallid hosts that kissed the. brazen wand. 

Quicken, my touch ! take fire, my dull refrains ! 

O Southland harp, awake with wild, unwonted strains I 

n. 

Hail, city fair, throned on eternal hills, 

Hard by the mighty river's sullen flow ! 
Far o'er the morning's gilded mist, that fills 

With tow'r and dome and shimm'ring bow 

The wide expanse thy monarch seat below, 
The weary helmsman hails thee with delight ; 

Or mocks the gloom, if but thy beacons glow, 
Conjuring oft with fancy's yearning sight 
The cheerful glimm'rings of his own domestic light. 

Nature's primeval work thy strength reveals ; 
Where now thy marts, before Itasca rose, 

Time's hoary form hath been and on thy hills 
Left his memorial ; they knew repose 
While yon fair land felt aye the wreck and throes^ 

The ruin and the waste, of change, nor smiles 
Perennial now. Full oft in rude embrace 

The am'rous flood of virgin life despoils, 
Destroys each fond adornment of her face, 
With recompense of fleecy wealth and vintage place. 



BUPEET wise: a POETIC BOMANCE. 11 

O'er nature's granite ramparts rise thy fanes, 

Pointing in prophecy the multitudes 
That move with listless mien along thy lanes 

To man's last end; or when the storm-king broods 

In ether's deep and vaulted solitudes, 
Or rears his form upon the lightning's path 

And thunder th' elemental strife preludes. 
Invite his bolts and kiss away his wrath ; 
For chaos knows his realm and ruin knows his path. 

Eed Avar around thy gates hath flamed, and Mars 

Hath looked with eyes of fiery curse on thee, 
While fates malign and tracts of evil stars 

Have marked with lurid fears thy destiny ; 

Yet queenly still thou sittest, clothed and free ; 
The past thou hast in tears, the future's page 

Thou boldest fair for peaceful history ; 
Though writ with golden pen for golden age, 
Thou still wilt hold thy past, with good or ill presage. 

To thee relates my song of various key ; 

To thee pertains my tale, in thee 'twas wrought. 
I own from thee the sense of mystery. 

And power of strong desire, in youth begot ; 

To thee anon turns mem'ry ever fraught 
With old-time visions of that free, grand tide. 

Moving majestic tow'rd its ocean lot. 
Life symboling through all its glinting pride ; 
And thy green hills around, though winter all beside. 



12 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Thine are these garlands, gathered most where Avave 
The dark-tressed willow-trees, and lowly blow 

The daffodils on beauty's early grave ; 

From darksome ways the tow'ring cliffs below, 
Where those red foils, sad bleeding-hearts, do grow. 

Admixed with thorn-set sprays of eglantine 

And nightshade blooms, that fringed petals show 

Through sun-scorched links of resurrection vine. 

Whose germs revive from mold — these, -mother, these are 

thine ! 

III. 

Well through his northern signs bold Phoebus pressed, 

Now quitted slowly Virgo's starry breast ; 

And Sirius, with dread, unequal sphere. 

Leading the Sothian train through wide career, 

Stood in the Archer's wake till, far and dim. 

He shone serene on evening's azure rim ; 

But ere his exit into nether space 

Eed blazed awhile his ill-portending face ; 

Which dire menace, explained by thoughtful wight, 

Spread terror round and din of wild affright ; 

Nor this alone besj^oke impending ire : 

The planet train in aug'ry dark conspire 

And held their poised spheres on evil plane. 

What time the comet shook his deadly mane 

O'er pleasant lands, and deep resounding far 

Came tokens of the earthquake's hidden war. 

But mundane nature else reflected wide 
The pangless scenes of Eden's nascent pride, 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 13 

And mocked with piping sounds in sylvan void 
Each rankling sense that hapless man annoyed ; 
Calm slept the fields where fruitful summer dreamed ; 
Full through the vales a wealth of sunhght streamed ; 
A Sabbath peace the distant spaces filled, 
AYhere zephyr's hand along the forest trilled 
With sounds that spoke Almighty presence nigh ; 
And latticed paths, besprint with crimson dye, 
Led toward the sunset city's burnished gate, 
Where fancy walks and dreams aspiring wait. 

Sad contrast held in that fair city's life, 

Besmit but late of war and wasting strife. 

Yet since renewed in every peaceful thought 

And, in a progress blood and sorrow bought, 

Yying with compeers raised by fortune's hand 

To higher state, the urbarchs of the land. 

Kg more, alas! breathed hope where her tall spires. 

Aglow with sunset's wide reflected fires, 

O'erlooked a thousand homes to shame unknown, 

A thousand hearths where humble virtue shone. 

And in the unseen censers of the heart 

The priestess Love her incense burned apart. 

Now apprehension's dread Nemesis walked 

Through erstwhile joyful scenes, and brooding stalked 

Through crowded ways or east in busy marts 

A haunting shade. Compelled by terror's arts. 

The rabble blanched at folly's idle tale. 

And nobler senses OAvned the subtle bale : 



14 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

A hidden scepter swayed the fateful hour 
As fear succeeding fear renewed its power, 
Nor wisdom's Avord, nor science' just disdain 
Availed to check the passions' frenzied reign. 

Convened apart by mutual sanction late, 
As oft their wont, for pleasure and debate, 
The wise physicians of the town appear 
In council free to soothe a rising fear 
By rumor of a distant scourge inspired. 
And name such action as the case required. 

Assembled once, the healing brotherhood 

With grave demean and words their task pursued. 

Though hope and wisdom speak of fate amiss 

And seem o'erwhelmed, they know the abyss 

And smile the darkness through to walk at last 

In fairer ways, to nobler fashion cast. 

Whom first the argument of hope to state, 

O verse, affirm, and wisdom celebrate ! 

Of form commanding and imposing mien. 

An air of leisure and a brow serene, 

Past middle years yet youth's inspiring light 

Still kindled in his eye of keenest sight 

And spoke the ready grace of cultured speech 

And skill that knew his fav'rite lore to teach. 

Now flashed his eye as fervidly he said : 

*'My faith abides that danger hence is fled ; 

Sure breaks apace the season's deadly spell 

And hope e'en now persuades that all is well. 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 15 

Our teaching brooks not seer nor fabler's lore, 
We draw our wiser proofs from safer store ; 
Yet, if the countless oracles without 
Spoke forth, they name no moiety of doubt ; 
There is no taint upon the moving air; 
The skies are mild, nor evil tokens bear ; 
Soft dews renew the chalice of the night 
And spread elixir through the welcome light ; 
Nor voice, nor sign the fever plague invites, 
But each, when told, an ardent hope excites 
Of long immunity from evil state. 
Our house in order stands for adverse fate ; 
As ne'er before we wait the scourge prepared; 
To famed resorts our affluent ones are fared, 
While others, lured by peace devoid of pride, 
In rural cots and neighboring seats abide. 
To vainly boast is scarce removed from crime, 
Yet, if I rightly calculate the time, 
'Tis five years since his saffron face we saw. 
When science, hand in hand with social law, 
Challenged his savage and unbridled reign 
As foreign foe the nation might restrain. 
Henceforth at ocean's verge the curse must stay, 
Nor dare renew by stealth his former sway. 
All this — who doubts ? — is earnest of the day 
When man, progressed to high and favored state, 
With dark intrigues and mad decrees of fate 
And such misfortune as belongs to chance, 
Shall measure equal strength, and. thus enhance 



16 BUPEBT wise: a poetic romance. 

The glory of his days and raze withal 
The frowning mass of fate's opposing wall. 
For that fair goal the general purj^ose pants 
And thrills expectant at the next advance ! " 

As silent touch of twilight's dewy spell 
Falls o'er and stills the rustling wood, so fell 
This cheerful speech the learned circle on, 
Approved of all, save one, observ^ant grown 
From long experience in the plague-cursed climes 
Of trojjic lands. High wish in other times. 
When youth was strong and science held 
Commanding sway of thought, had hence impelled 
To brave insidious death and in his lair 
Attack that dread whose coming brought despair. 

He, rising, statue poised a moment stood, 

His face betraying old Acadian blood ; 

Then bent his comely form in conscious pride, 

And to his brother's ardent words replied : 

"Your reasoning as it runs is^fair to hear, 

And if not sound at least will please the ear; 

'Twere pleasant task such logic to imbibe 

And to your transcendental creed subscribe ; 

But vain I fear your prophecy of good. 

Alas, if time should blight this cheerful mood, 

And leave where hopes rejoice but fortitude ! 

The fever rages now in all Balize ; 

Cuba is not without the fell disease ; 

And Key West, though the truth is hard to gain, 

I much suspect has kept her isle in vain; 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 17 

And mein'ry serves me of a time long gone — 

My home was in the ancient Creole town — 

The ending of a season much like this; 

The summer waned, and nothing went amiss; 

September's sultry days were growing mild; 

The evenings dropped like visions undefiled ; 

The natives dreamed, as thousands from the States^ 

No evil nigh, when suddenly the fates 

Seemed all their iron hands to lift and wage 

Kelentless war alike on youth and age. 

As bands of armed men that long had lain 

In stealthy wait, the fever rose amain. 

And heaj^ed the city in a day with slain. 

Full fierce it broke, full fierce from fifty points. 

Yet, strange to tell, that year the rule disjoints: 

No fever could be traced on all the seas. 

In tro2:)ic lands no tidings of the dread disease, 

And we alone of all the world were cursed. 

We deal with fierce and stealthy foe, nor durst, 

If still our wits abide, a respite take 

Till winter's winds our benison shall make." 

To this a third returned in tones of mirth. 
Although half moved to own the reason's worth : 

" You then would have us write and seal our wills, 
Our epitaphs inscribe, since shufiiing haste 

Is like to leave no time therefor. But ills 
There be of greater moment than this last. 

A prudent care is worthy noblest wills ; 
But man by fear unnerved is man debased." 

2 , • 



18 RUFEliT wise: a poetic R0MA2iCE, 

Pasteur, for such the mild Acadian's name 

(With him, as else, not all unknown to fame). 

Thus made reply : " I speak a danger near. 

An ajDprehension nowise born of fear. 

But of that better mind which warns and cheers ; 

Yet, though 'tis so, no remedy appears, 

We stand an inland port, nor say nor choose 

What tonnage we will pass, or what refuse. 

Our Congress should this vital matter meet, 

And give our subtle foe a last defeat. 

The war must open at the nation's door. 

And press this dragon to the ocean's shore ; 

Ay, more than this, in sooth, must then befall: 

Each lurking-place, each haunt by city's wall, 

Each reeking vault where death resides, 

His ally proves ; a thousand gates besides 

Arc 02)en in the viewless air, nor doubt, 

A cause is found within as found without — 

These, too, must know the conquering war ; must prove 

The strength of truceless law, ere forward move 

Our people's hopes. As men who own the sense 

Of public trust, the present's dire suspense 

We must with active counsel meet. A plea 

I recommend to every house to see 

Its part in shaping of the city's good 

By strict regard to health in air and food. 

Should all to this without dissent agree, 

I trust me much no plague's advent to see." 



RUPEBT wise: a POETIC EOMAXCE. 19 

By tact of skill and drift of various mind, 

To jousts of wit the wordy war inclined. 

The council heard, a moment now concerned, 

I^ow moved to action, now to lightness turned. 

And having met by sage advice the call. 

In social trend the learned gossips fall. 

" Let's to the weed," one cries, " why cheat 

Ourselves of this ? for little seems it meet 

To give to life alone of solemn care, 

AYhen hangs its changing fortunes, bad and fair, 

On such capricious chance!" 

AYith no dissent, 
The fragrant weed around the circle went. 
Thus passed an hour in pleasant sort beguiled, 
Like bivouac scenes, wher6 thoughts of carnage wild, 
Though lurks he near with gory hands and feet, 
Enter no more than into love's retreat. 
Till he whose proud Acadian features burned 
With anxious thought the discourse mildly turned : 

'• ISTow pardon grant, if I disposed should seem 
Too much to chase an interdicted theme ; 
'Tis social matter that I would unfold 
Which grows in wonder as the tale is told. 
You each, no doubt, have marked the rapid rise, 
The wealth and growing fame of Rupert Wise, 
Our young Hippocrates who two years since, 
From lectures fresh, took up his residence 
In modest style on Cells Parlor Heights ; 
The case is rare, and me it much delights. 



20 RVPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

From first, he showed unusual skill and tact ; 

His birth, his high-born ways but touched the fact : 

Puzzled, I sought for reasons more exact, 

But wonder late is shorn of sense and Avord ; 

By this day's post I have the latest i^ecortZ. 

It bears young Eupert's autograph descant, 

' The germs of fever shown to he a plants' 

Eeplete with learning's force, in logic strong, 

Quite bold enough for learned dean, savant^ 

Or titled master of the healing art ; 

Indeed, I style the same a master-part. 

'Tis freely said (the Record gave the hint, 

Seconded by a leading Eastern print) 

This treatise wins its author recognition 

And 't may be, in time, a decoration ; 

'Twere but a step across the water then ; 

A twelvemonth more, perchance, with famous men, 

Though overleaping precedents and rules. 

Our colleague may be named in Old World schools." 



XoAV spake the senior of the brotherhood, 
A man benign, who seemed in youth renewed 
At threescore years, as if of Heaven's will 
Some high estate to grace or aptly fill 
Some lot requiring ripest thought. To him 
Fortune was not the gross return or whim 
Of fickle chance, but mind untarnished, clear, 
With large support of soul to soothe and cheer 
The mind through arduous tasks. Him they bear 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 21 

*'A lively interest rises in my breast 

For this same youth, and 'tis to be confessed 

As no mean cause for sense of pride to us 

And to our calling that he prospers thus ; 

His parts and words show genius' fair imj)ress ; 

His birth and station speak ; nor less express 

His comely modesty and easy bearing — 

A dress admired, but one of rarest wearing — 

Like any Greek, young Rupert wears his grace ; 

Adonis scarce possessed more handsome face. 

These well might win him foremost rank and place, 

But grounds exist for doubt and friendly fear. 

Indeed, what soon must reach the public ear 

'Tis safe to iterate in private way ; 

Although in mind and frame and social stay, 

In noble j^lans, he firm and anchored seems. 

One darkest curse dims all his future dreams, 

And one which, though we understand too well, 

Einds oft our brotherhood with cruel spell, 

This same hath set on him its base impress — 

He loves the cup and drinks to mad excess." 

Hereat a third caught up the growing tale — 
A bachelor of prim attire, with pale 
And smirking face : a gallant in his day. 
But now grown stern, wnth but the feeblest ray 
Of tender light left in his eyes of blue : 
"Not current goes the story, yet quite true ; 
This Eupert has a love aflPair : therein 
The secret of his life and of his sin 



4- 



22 BUPERT wise: a poetic bomance. 

Grows deep in coloring : its heroine 

A fair and fragile girl, one Madeline, 

A planter's child, petted, adored, and sought, 

Yet, strange to say, not spoiled, displaying. naught 

In wish or act but speaks uncommon mind. 

Most to such converse seems her thought inclined 

As touches noble action, conquers doubt. 

And calls the subtlest points of logic out ; 

Withal a child and artless as the wind, 

Yeering to trivial sense of womankind : 

A kirtled queen, Minerva sewing floss, 

'Tvvixt stellar problems smoothing birdie's gloss. 

She loves young Wise, nor other passion knew. 

From early childhood side by side they grew, 

But this one vice has cleft them far apart ; 

Her hand she keeps, yet gives him all her heart. 

His bold agnosticism, cold and flippant doubt, 

He hides from her, whose soul is most devout 

And, true to woman's faith, bid^ love remain 

Till love itself shall heal her every pain. 

She lives a tearful hope that soon or late 

His manhood may assert itself, and fate 

Be changed to happier current in the end ; 

And so her thought preserves a peaceful trend. 

But hope, alas ! is vain. He who can hold 

His treason out against such love is sold 

To baseness and an evil self — a slave 

To appetite — and merits not to have 

One kindly thought, far less such love as this ! 

Hope there is not this side the grave's abyss, 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 23 

This side of Hades or the waves of Styx, 

Or such dread state as guilty fear depicts, 

That he will cease to quaff the fiery shame, 

Though maiden's blood mixed with its liquid flame. 

His father, rich and strong and fitted well 

For honors high in state, and born to tell 

The rights of man, who even in tender youth 

Was forward in such things and loved the truth, 

Later the friend of Prentiss and to him 

Second alone in flexive speech, less dim 

In thought, and bolder in all alignment — 

Alas, too much like him in evil bent! 

He quenched (sad fate !) in wine that god-like fire 

And died bereft of mind, as beasts expire! 

How can we better of tho son, aa^io sprung 

From stem diseased, self-nurtured and so young. 

Reveals the vice as genius of his sire?" 

Pasteur, the darker shades of thought that lay 

Along his mind, like clouds upon the day,- 

Chased by the sun of merriment away. 

Twitted these earnest words with hidden jest: 

" You speak with ivarmth ; in reason one had guessed 

You look yourself with passion's eye that way. 

Too long you've left that matter of the heart 

To want ; too long withstood the tender art; 

You late confessed to six and fifty years, 

'Tis not a sound to please a maiden's ears, 

So now repress your passion's rising force 

And settle down to pills and dry discourse." 



24 BUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

The answer came as from a long-forbidden source: 

" Too fair and pure a realm is woman's love, 

Too sacred all its heavenly visions prove, 

For soul like mine. Afar I gaze, admire, . 

But know no thoughts so mad as thence aspire ; 

Her worth I own, confessed in earlier days, 

JN^or deem a fault the affluence of my praise. 

In sooth, for this fair maid I feel concern, 

Though only such as lighter thoughts might turn; 

For, truth to tell, acquaintance ne'er so slight 

I boast with Madeline; a stiif, polite. 

And hasty introduction on the guards, 

A friendly salutation afterwards. 

Tell all our intercourse from first to last. 

Nor shade of tender thought its memories cast." 

" Your words," Pasteur replied, " echo romance : 

' Upon the guards ' — a trivial circumstance. 

Yet many life arrangements owe their force 

To no more serious thing — an easy course, 

A salutation here or there by chance, 

A glint of moonlight through the night's expanse, 

Mutual tastes discovered, friend 1}^ ways, 

An idyl through the sloth of summer days, 

A walk, a drive, and trysts on quiet eves, 

A pledge, a vow, the fall of autumn leaves, 

A dash of winter winds, a burst of light 

Through perfumed halls, the golden circlet's plight, 

A wedding chant, the lapse of life's content, 

A quiet home — and so the thread of life is spent." 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 25 

"Avtiunt! for shame ! to tickle cars like mine 

With words that speak such gushing thought ! Kew wine 

Meets not the old, nor can you graft the rose 

Upon the hawthorn bough ; its forms oppose 

The ruder fiber of the weathered tree, 

So dreams of maids and love befit not me. 

Go, put your ravings in a penny book. 

And then, perchance, some maiden, love forsook, 

8ome idle dreamer under summer's sky 

Will read, and you more wealth shall gain thereby 

Than you are like to see the whole year through 

By magic of your skill and nostrums too." 

To end this witty tilt, broke in once more 

The senior's voice; not listless as before 

His air, but changed and heavy was his mood 

With fears augmented and the gath'ring load 

Of danger felt. Thus spake he, blending well 

A tinge of mirth with sadder words that fell : 

" Enough ! enough ! break off, your speeches tire ; 

They tell a task essayed without desire 

And mind me of a scene that marked the days 

When iron monsters fringed with lurid blaze 

The river's strand before the city's front. 

And through the dragging weeks we felt the brunt 

Of leaden war. The lines of bristling steel 

Fell like a wall across the land ; to feel 

"The pinch of want became our daity meed, 

Por nothing came, and direr grew the need. 



26 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance, 

'Twas on that last eventful day I stood 

Before the baker's door in speechless mood. 

He seemed to read my fear nor left a doubt, 

But answered straight: 'My friend, the dough is out!'' 

But whence his thought or what his words' import 

'Twere bootless now to ask. Instant report 

Confirmed the town's surrender to the foe. 

Whether 'twere that or lack of cakes and dough 

I did not further seek. In either place 

The rule applies, so rest this fruitless case. 

The hours have far tow'rd sombor midnight waxed^ 

Your honored heads for wit are overtaxed ; 

To-morrow's sun will bring to each, I w^eeu, 

jS"ew toils ; but hours of slumber intervene, 

And well behooves it us to seek i*epose ; 

The fear we fain would scorn more real grows. 

A fortnight's space our hopes will make or mar ; 

But, come what may, we're entered for the war.'^ 

Xow midnight clothed in shades and ebon gloom 
The favored town, and silence as of doom 
Held cot and lofty dome in mute embrace ; 
The Avatch-stars, mounting toward their vigil place,. 
In shining ranks approached the sal)le tower. 
And flung their beams creation's vastness o'er. 
What darkness looked they on ! what sorrow read 
Through latticed ways, where smothered dread 
Spoke forth in sleepless eyes or forced its seal 
On fevered lips and brows too soon to feel 
The fiercer touch of mortal ill ! 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 27 

While yet 
The darkness held its sway and culd dews wet 
His thick, neglected locks, the night patrol — 
A stern, unflinching man, who softly stole 
Like some dark specter, year by year, along 
The silent streets and alleys dark among — 
Anon heard phantom feet upon the wind 
While viewless horsemen trode the night behind, 
And cried the van-guard of a coming woe, 
Hurried themselves from peaceful scenes below 
To that far bourne with dread and evil haste. 
Others protest a tall fierce spirit j^aced 
From cottage door to marble balcony 
And marked with strange de\^ce each casement high — ■ 
Some say with shape like' demon's cloven hoof, 
Others with sign of such attenuate proof 
As spirit sight alone avails to read — 
Earnest of course the besom death should lead. 

The sexton, old and full of monkisn dote, 
Related how a sacred hand had smote 
In sleep that night his withered form, and led 
Him forth where slept inurned the mold'ring dead, 
And ])lanned him twoscore hundred open graves, 
Blessing with chalice and the prayer that saves. 
So that the unshriven dead might rest at least 
In holy ground while death pursued his feast. 
Protesting still with fear and reverend faith, 
The ancient man recalled his father's wraith 



28 BUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Ofttimes had filled his sight, when that his death 

The circling months had brought to mind; his breath 

Eeturned to warn some evil must befall 

His offspring near that fatal day; withal - 

That night his father's ghost in deep concern 

Appeared, and from its legendary urn 

In Tara old, o'er ocean forced to fly, 

His family banshee hfted mortal cvj] 

He, hapless man, the last of that high trust. 

The banshee hence must sleep with Tara's dust! 




GAMO SEGOND 



w 



HO nameth life ? The deep portentous gloom 
That drops anon when breaks its borrowed spell ; 
The silent gleam of stars from morning's womb; 

The sudden burst of daylight's conqu'ring swell ; 

The bounding into sunlit ways, where dwell 
The living thoughts of shape and mold divine 

That speak of wise and' tender wish and tell 
Some kindred hand, impelled by love's design, 

Hath spread its palm, in kingly wise, to bless; 

And voice that bids the night be day, nor welcome less. 

Who nameth hfe ? A dream, a fading cloud- 
Fantastic wanderer of a boundless sky, 

Gilded with unenduring light, or plowed 

By angry storms. Unchosen choice ! we cry 
For length of days and drink the chalice dry, 

Supposing this were all. Mystery dread ! 
Yet sweet because so much a mystery ; 

Joy born of pain and life born of the dead : 

And clouds that travail with the thunder's pain 
Weep liquid life and sweetness on the fruitful plain. 

(29) 



30 RVPEBT Vr^ISE: A POETIC BOMAXCE. 

II. 

Hard by ii Avidc expanse of inland waves, 

AYhere primal warmth of summer's sunshine laves 

The fruitful acres of an old demesne, 

A lordly homestead rises up between 

A vistaed range of Lombard boles that stand, 

Like domeless columns in a wasted land. 

Green darkness, cast by elms and ancient limes, 

Half hides the lofty gables, porch, and rimes 

Of weathered stucco imder Scottish tiles 

That glisten white and red above the leafy aisles. 

ISTorthward the boundless furrowed valleys range. 

Alternate white and brown with staples' change; 

Southward the verdant pasture lands outroll 

To marge on sinuous glade and amber pool, 

Lavish of grassy fens and cockle dells, 

Eifled by soft-eyed kine to sound of tinkling bells. 

Here dwelt, in exik=^ from the world's desire, 
That Madeline who cheered her Avidovred sire 
With reverent speech and love's adjusted power, 
Eeguiling evening's still and dusky hour 
With gentlest service, duteous constancy, 
With lute and lay of pleasing minstrelsy. 
Yet nursed Avithin her bosom's spotless serine 
The cruel pang that passing years refine — 
The pang of hope deferred, of love unwise — 
An angel fearing its own paradise. 
The wine of joy from bitter lees was bred. 
And cheerful words, like leaves of roses wed 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 61 

To thorny stem, sat on a heart that bore 

Such poignant grief as pierced it to its inmost core 

ISTow came the eve, such eves as bless 

This favored bind : roseate flush and stress 

Of sunset skies and soft south Avinds that shake 

Ambrosial sweetness from the flow'ry brake, 

.And mild intoxicants of odorous breaths 

From clustered elder-boughs and bulbous wreaths 

Of great magnolia-trees ; murmurous sounds 

Of nature's mingling under-tones, and rounds 

Of far-off notes some dusky troubadour 

Chants lustily alone, his labors o'er; 

Or distant throbbings of the heart of steam 

In some grim packet's side, riding the stream 

With fleecy freight — its deep and muffled swells 

Prophetic of the plaint that fate compels 

From heart of universal man, who stems 

The tide, distraught of weight that peace condemns. 

Monitions, too, of spirit essence move 

Upon the soul, and every power involve I 

In quick gestations of delightful sense. 

Such eve prevailed, and 'neath the soft defense 

Of chimb'ring vines that trailed her garden o'er 

Walked Madeline with anxious thought and sore, 

Caressing as she passed each floret's head. 

And on each petal lip a trembling tear-drop shed. 

O guerdon pure of our lost Eden bliss! 
Sweet recompense of grief and hope amiss • 



32 RUPERT wise: a I'OETIC ROMAyCE. 

The flowers that wilding blush in woodland shade, 
Or blow beside the hedge or, beauty rayed, 
Grace garnered fields and home's love-lighted bowers- 
God's love be praised for love and leaves and flowers! 
'•Behold, into my garden I am come!" 
The Rose of Sharon saith, the sweet Bridegroom. 
Was it the vale of tears, Gethsernane, 
Death gloomed from rugged brow of Calvary, 
Where, with torn hands and anguish-riven heart. 
He plucked rich spicery boughs and myrrh, a part 
Of His own self, that tree of life that grew 
Hard by the fontal wave, under the seventh blue ? 

lily ! one red spot thy whiteness shows ; 

1 kiss thy petals, and the w^onder grows. 
For in thy deej^est heart it crimsons most. 
Not one sweet drop of that rich blood was lost. 
Heldest thou forth a chalice pure as love 

To drink ? Irreverent must thou seem to prove, 

O anxious faith ? Howbeit, this I know, 

He loved the flowers, and ever told his woe 

To them, and breathed on them his tend'rest breathy 

Making them tell the tale of life and death 

As seen through his mJld eyes, and chose his hour 

When flow'ring Nisan dropped its shower 

Of asphodels and wild thyme everywhere, 

And when he slept at last they laid him there. 

In Joseph's garden where the fringed lilies were. 

Eftsoon a weeping Magdalene found. 

Lingering still that sacred vault around. 



J» 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 33 

In whom she read the simple gardener's mien 
Till that his voice revealed the Nazarenc. 
Might Madeline, the broken-hearted, find 
Amongst her flowers that same "Eabboni" kind! 

The summer winds toyed with her flowing hair, 

Exotics rained their perfumes on the air, 

And cast a wealth of w^axen forms that grew 

More sweet when crushed beneath her dainty shoe. 

A broken urn lay near, its dead anemones 

Typing too well love's wasted memories. 

Her fragile fingers clutched a penciled sheet, 

Its dainty seal and tinted covering neat 

That, dropped by chance, lay on a bed of phloX; 

Like alabaster set in crusted blocks 

Of purple gems above a temple's shrine, 

Bespeaking tracery of words divine. 

Whose sense must needs have smit with fatal force 

A heart already quenched at vital source. 

Her dark-brown eyes that lustrous shone were fair 

AYith frenzying light, but mute despair 

Had settled on the face of perfect mold 
That showed insensate whiteness like the sheen 
Of some pale star through vapory moonlight seen ; 

And now the dark eyes' light grew pensive, cold. 
The quiv'ring lips in troubled accents moved. 
And breathed a speech that erst too much had proved: 

" Courage, my woman's heart, be brave and stout. 
Though sorrow lade and passion measure out 
Each crimson drop that warmly courses thee, 

a 



34 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

And leave with each a grief its own to be, 
Though thou hast felt of hope the utmost pain 
Till, suffering long, thou knewest hojie was vain ; 
Though thou hast felt the torturing sens'e and smart 
Of newborn shame and fate's relentless art — 
Nathless, my tear-scorched heart, I bid be still, 
Of bitter tears thou canst but weep thy fill ! 

" ' Woman, why weepest thou ? ' a tender voice 

Asked long ago. Weeping is not thy choice. 

But aye has been thy lot : a wild swept harp 

Since first that heart Avas bared to feel the sharj^, 

Fierce blasts without those sun-blest vales that made . 

Its earliest home. That thou hast dearly paid 

Thy fault, let say old tales of sword and lust 

From leagured towns ; and desert-withered dust 

Of ancient capitals ; let her that wept 

Beside the Ilian distaff; they that kept 

Campana's furrowed fields bedewed with tears, 

And Punic daughters, from their birth to curse 

Of foreign shame foredoomed, and Attic maids, 

And that long line of weeded mourning shades 

That moves through history's dim-aisled, mystic fane, 

Attest with soul-born throes of undeserved pain ! 

These filled their tearful lots and went their way, 

Fading at autumn touch of sorrow's day, 

To spring again by some still vernal wave 

Beyond the hazy doubts that skirt the grave, 

No withering leaf of hope to know, no sigh 

Of blasting winds — they waited, suffering ; so must I. 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 35 

^'If love essays, as oft in other days, 

To cast its horoscope of joyful wish, 
And sweeps along the future's veiled years, 
But swift, portentous shadows darkly rush, 
Like evil things, before my troubled gaze, 

And ne'er a favoring star or sign appears. 
I cannot trust that fond delusive thought 

That strengthened ties and sealed bridal vows 
Will break an evil pow'r, more evil fraught. 

That love restrained and hope deferred break not; 

To yield to fate that last restraint endows 
With evil absolute a now thrice bitter lot. 

^' But once again, yet once again; perchance, I slight 
Some word, some simple, doubly precious word 
That, like a window tow'rd the dawning light, 

Lets morning through w4th touch of hallowed peace. 
O lines by true love tears already blurred. 

And waking fateful echoes that shall cease 
Only when soul shall stand to soul revealed 

In that consuming Presence, knowing all, 
Give forth thy secret, if there be concealed 

In thee one gleam of hope or duty's higher call! " 

The tearful eyes once more review the written sheet 
Whose passioned words the evening winds repeat : 

" Sweet Madeline, hear this my latest plea 
So often made 'tis moved by dolorous sighs ; 

Now writ in tears and well-nigh sealed with blood. 

In prison dark, my soul goes out to thee. 



36 BUPEBT wise: a poetic eomance. 

Lifts up its voice, and fondly, wildly cries 

For heljD from thy dear hands. A rising flood 

Of fears and doubts o'erwhelm, but in the full 
Abiding strength of that deep love of thine 
I seek repose. 'Tis thou, of earthly or divine, 

Hast pow'r to soothe my troubled thoughts and lull 
The angry stonn and wasting strife within. 

Pity, if thou canst pity one so weak. 
And quickly come, thou radiant dream of love, 

Thou morn of peace, into my life and sj^eak 
The gracious word that seals thee ever mine 
And seals me unto honor's self and prove 

That power which daily I extol as thine; 
Bid me attend thy will, and lo ! I come 
Swift as the mated doves that seek their home 

AYhen sudden storms burst on their aerie flight. 
'Tis honor bids me say I still am bound ; 

But thou, my angel keeper, thou hast might, 
When nuptial love shall ripen In its time. 

To break each ling'ring fetter and proclaim 

3Ie free. Heal thou my soul's corroding wound; 

Bid me return, as erst, in thy sweet name ! 
My days are exile ; long I for that clime 

In Avhich my boyhood's heart felt glad surprise 

And drank thy smiles. Forever, Eupert Wise." 

" Nay, never can it be, although each flow'r 

That blossomed fresh in girlhood's peaceful morn 

Be blighted by the word, and envious dust 
Eest on their petals, and each rapture born 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 37 

With them be turned to grief, and though the rust 

Dim all my altar gold, it may not be. 
Thou scest, soul, the path grows many a thorn. 

But thou shalt tread it since 'twas made for thee. 
Decide I must; be this the moment and the hour. 

O that I had a friend on whom to lean ! 
Some kindred heart to share my heavy load. 

That walking, in my somber world, between 
Their love and His who shed his kingly blood 

To give me final jjeaco,! might find strength 

To journey on through all life's weary length ! 
O for the voice of her who gave me birth ! 

O for a mother's constant thought to lead 
The way ! But long the cold obstructive earth 

Has claimed that gentlest friend. They laid her head 
On lowly pillow in the vale where oft I trod 

In childhood's years, undreaming of my loss, 
Undreaming of this hour, hid save from God, 

Undreaming of the fate that soon should toss 
The life that she so fondly prayed might know 

But peaceful days and fruited joys on seas 
Thrice turbulent with breaking waves, and show 

Of envious chance that on misfortune preys. 
O mother, does thy waking spirit hear 

My prayers, the burdening sighs I heave. 
Or know when I am near thy lonely grave? 

Say, mother, does thy soul regard thy child 
When on that grave she drops the pensive tear, 

And mourns thy life's sweet scope and vision o'er? 



38 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

canst thou through this evening tAvilight mild 
Look down — ay, dost thou see me evermore ? 

1 am a j^ilgrim in the way, beguiled 

Ko more by earth, and soon shall be as thou. 
Oft when I bow at evening time for prayer, 

I feel unearthly impress on my brow. 
As if some guardian spirit's touch were there; 

O tell me, mother, is that impress thine? 
Enough ! I know that thou art near me here ; 

Thy life of love, thy memory's constant bloom, 
Breathe patient trust. The higher will is mine ! 

Yon fair ascending star whose beams are shed 
In radiance half melodious round thy tomb 

A beacon light becomes, and safe shall lead 
My trustful spirit heavenward, sunward, home I ' 

As swells the rising sea with refluent shock. 

When back recoiling from the buttressed rock. 

So rose the maiden's soul upon the wave 

Of troubled sense that into silence drave 

And seemed to die, but backward turned and wrought 

With misty hands a spectral dread in thought. 

Long time she stood, with strong decision spent 

In one concern, and thus her purpose went : 

" My father wills it, and I make my own 

That kind paternal thought, with kindred near. 

In that dear Old Dominion clime, now grown 
More dear, to bide the fading of the year ; 



liUPEET wise: a poetic romance. 39 

To those fair mountains lifting their bhie heads 

Above the scenes of beauty in the vale 
Where, hke a tender wilding flower that spreads 

Its petals to the wooing breezes, frail 
As their induing breath, my mother grew 

To blissful maidenhood, I turn with hope ; 
There still, perhaps, with sweetness like the dew 

That lingers in the lily's nodding cup 
When down the night withdraws the bridegroom sun, 

Her spirit, virgin robed, abides my prayer. 
There will I seek repose, if e'er that boon 

For my torn heart kind Heaven on earth prepare, 
Or else I shall And rest, unbroken rest, 

In silent sleep beside the gliding wave. 
While o'er my head the spring doves coo and nest 
And blue-eyed clovers 'weep above my grave. 

" Who knows that unrevealed life beyond? 

Enough that in the bosom of its years 
Love shall not bring despair, nor vital bond 

Be loosed with i-ain between of fruitless tears! 
Ay, Heaven is kind! perchance I there shall know 

His faultless love, and winds of paradise 
Shall catch from bowers that dust untarnished blow 

The old-time vows, breathed ere that thralling vice 
Had walked within the shadow of our faith. 

O Father, must thy noblest work, despoiled 
And marred, be left to shame eterne ? Why saith 

Thy word ' His angels shall have charge, lest toiled 
Of sin he dash his foot the stones against?' 



40 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Shall guardian spirits arch in vain their wings 
Above that laureled head ? Must that bold light 

Of goodly intellect that flows like sj^rings 
Of infant day go out in deepest night ? 

Nay ! saith a wish that will not be denied, 
A wish that by thy certain promise plain' st: 

Must mercy, moved to die, in vain have died ? 
Yet will I trust and hold thy promise true ; 

Our weakness is thy might, and still thou deign'st 
Our prayers and cries, nor dost thy pleasure rue. 

I will believe thee better than our fears. 
Ay, better than our highest faith hath made, 

Or even our tenderest speech can frame 
A thought of thee ! Whether from sorrow laid, 

Or bliss breathed, on our hearts there wake the flame 
Of purer joys and nobler wish, appears 

To feeble sight the mask of cruel chance ; 
But who loves not the weeping hai'j^-string best,. 

And who feels not his soul rise on the trance 

Of plaintive song? 

"Alas ! I am unblest 

With holy memory of a love whose glance 
Were like some kindly star's, ascendant proved 

At natal hour and holding forth through life 
A potent charm. Yet to my fate I loved. 

And that deep thought was in my being rife, 
And wrought into the texture of my soul. 

kSo long ago my tender mind retained 
No memory of the day, love on the scroll. 

The fair and hidden scroll, of life detained 



RUPERT WISE: A POETIC ROMANCE. 41 

His fiery wand and wrote one only name. 

Dream not, ye winds, I love no more. That fire 
Shall burn with inextinguishable flame. 

As vestal altar on, lighting the pyre 
Of every earthly hope, as one by one 

The days consign them to their doom. Yet so 
We meet redeemed at last from evil done. 

And purged from dross, what matter now I know 
Such fiery test ? what though my spirit cry ? 

It shall be well. With that dear hope how short 
The years to wait; yet doubts, that say not why, 

Are mine ; nor more is made of winds the sport 
Yon shredded gossamers that toss on high 

Than I the sport of fear and soul's misgivings. 
Why must we suffer so and lift a fruitless cry 

Who are the crown of life and first of things ? 
The swallow circling toward the brim 

Of yonder sun-dyed wave knows joy alone. 
And love at evening's close will answer him 

From out the nest beside the chimney stone ; 
Ah, should our summer tide at last begin, 

Through circling of the endless years above, 
And we, its sunny bosom resting in. 

But hear the purer accents of our love, 
Chased by the winter of unrest from earth, 

It will be well. O God, thou know'st to prove 
Our love ; in death, to give it better birth! " 

With dusky wings the shadows swept the sky ; 

Her owlet horns the moon pushed through the leaves 



42 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

That caught the glare of one great open eye, 
Hesper's, lone gleaming from the western eaves 

Of heaven's blue vault. A chill of dewy air 

Eose from the wave, when Madeline, with change 

To sweet composure of her heart's despair, 

Walked slowly from the garden toward the grange. 

Now mellow lamp-light filled the spacious hall 

And silence, like the awful hush of death, 
Broke only by the night-bird's call, . 

Held earth in dusky arms. The languid breath 
Of flowers dropped through the lattice wide and bare ; 

And fancy might have heard the muflied steps 
Of long-departed guests ujx)n the stair, 

Like mem'ries threading down the silent years ; 
And in the heart of Madeline two trains 

Passed ever on, and one was doubts and fears 
That beckoned backward to the past with plains 

And many bitter words, at sight of days 
That, bearing signs of hope, brought but despair ; 

And one was trust and faith that moved, apace, 
From life's spent hopes, upwai\l through paths of prayer 

"A song," her father cried, "a song, my child; 

To-morrow takes you hence for many days ; 
A tender, plaintive song," he said and smiled 

A smile warm with the summer of a parent's pi^aise. 

Seated before the ivory bank anon, 

While unseen fingers swept her heart with pain, 



RVPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 

She swept the waking octaves with her own, 
And rather wept than sang this simple strain : 

1 " Throngh hfe's morning fitful, fleeting. 

With its dalliance and caressing 
Waking thought to passion's glow, 
Quick' ning pulse to higher beating, 
All the soul's deep force expressing, 
Breathing on its wish below — 
I am waiting, fondly dreaming. 

On the sands of youth's fair shore; 
Till my boast shall change from seeming, 
Till my stately ship comes o'er. 

2 "Now the roseate tints are glowing 

Where the summer skies are bending 
Downward through the depths of light ; 
And my once glad dreams are growing, 
Like the day with shadows blending. 
Somber with no sail in sight ; 
Still, with dauntless trust I'm waiting 

On the lone enchanted shore, 
Heart and brain to hope pulsating. 
Though no gallant ship comes o'er. 

3 " Months and seasons passing, fleeting, 

In their circles waxing, waning. 
Lengthen into weary years ; 
Still my heart is wildly beating. 
And my trust is uncomplaining. 

Though oppressed with gath'ring fears. 



M RUPERT wise: a poetic romance, 

Hope with ardor warm is burning, 
Beacon midst the silent j^ears, 

Still no earnest of returning, 
Still no freighted ship appeal^ ! 

4 " Many a bark, the mad wave crossing, 
Has escaped and anchored, resting 
'Neath a placid autumn sky ; 
But amidst the ocean's tossing, 

Where with Avind is wind contesting, 
Eides my gallant ship on high, 
While with yearnings strange I'm waiting 

On the strand where joys have been. 
With earth-pride and wish abating, 
Till my wave-tossed ship comes in ! 



5 " Evening shades of life are falling. 

O'er the hill-tops darkly brooding, 
Settling slowly o'er the main ; 
And a mystic voice is calling — 

Sorrow's surcease sure preluding — 
Calling now in hope's refrain ; 
And my spirit, longing, list'ning, 

Views afar the silent shore 
Bathed in morn's eternal glist'ning. 
Where my treasure ship shall moor. 

6 "Stars of peace are calmly beaming 

Through the tempest slowly rift in g- 
Stars that guide my bark aright, 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 45 

Lamps of grace whose kindly gleaming, 

O'er the treach'rous billows sifting, 
Drives the dangers from the night. 
Voice of power shall calm its heaving, 

Ocean's deep and sullen roar, 
And my ship, the waters cleaving, 

Anchor near the golden shore ! " 




CRMO THIRD. 



I. 

(( rrlHINE own self know," well spake the ancient sage ; 
I But who can know himself, the heart's wide realm 
That stretches, like an untrod land, with rage 

Along its coast of wild dark waves that whelm 
In dire dismay who seek their force to stem ? 

AYhere if, by chance of wisdom taught or sent 
Of Heaven, one safely hold his stonn-tried helm, 

Searching for secret lost to life's intent. 

How must he weep the shame of that dark continent ! 

Or if, perchance, unsent we pensive ride 
The crested waves far off its mystic strand, 

The distant roar of billowy seas and wide. 

Fierce streams, descending mountain paths, command 

Our various fears, and awe the desert land ; 
And still abide its secrets, tufted plains 

Hung round with awful wilds, where thickly stand 
The upas forms, and deadly damp distrains 
The kindly air, till hope expires and fate comj^kins. 

Yet hath the strong mysterious God-man's feet 

Compassed in pain that mist world's hidden bounds. 

And crimson marked its desert paths, where beat 
The torrid suns of fiery grief, and sounds 

im — 



EVFERT wise: A POETIC ROMANCE, 47 

Of agony have waked its dread profounds — 
A human soul, path-linding love and hope, 

Still pressing on, with loneliness and wounds, 
Amid the night, on furtherest seas to cope 
With death and destined lands to heaven's invasions ope. 

II. 

Within his study, passion-tossed and racked 

With fears that o'er his wine-fired fancy tracked 

Their comet paths, paced Eupcrt Wise and fought, 

Through rugged ways and dark defiles of thought, 

The fierce-waged battles of despair and doubt, 

Till overborne the weary soul wailed out : 

" Life is a cheerless passage through the night 

And hope a pale, delusive meteor's light 

That streaks the gloom with sudden fitful glare, 

But dies the moment of its birth, A snare 

Is that desire which kindles passion's flame 

To tender thoughts puraue or deeds of nobless claim. 

O that I had not known this mocking sin, 

Or, better far, that I had never been. 

Since life bears not the pleasure of its name, 

And since, alas ! the future's mystic fame 

Is void of softening sheen or image fair 

Of other life when doomed mortals dare ! 

The cu]) that rapture brings to kindred lips 
To mine yields bitterness and fierce desj^air; 

The orb that nightly into ocean dips 
Unchains the light anew o'er earth to roll. 

And shakes the tepid dew from morning's urn, 



48 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Brings hence to me no morn of sweet control, 
Xor earnest of my sinless years' return ; 

The stars that smile to other eyes and shed 

Celestial luster on their sight, instead 

I see as jeweled daggers in the hands 

Of that unpitying, sleepless fate who stands 
AYhere ends at length the path of mortal fears, 

Eeady to quench the last of reason's breath 
And shroud in night the fitful, fleeting years 

Of suffering man — I hail that sleep of- death ! 

"And yet, God knows, if through yon mocking deep 

There walks a being such as Christians say, 
God knows I would have other creed, would weep 

In penitence and, like the humblest, pray; 
But worse than vain were that, I can't believe! 

Ah, there's the rock on which my wish is Avrecked; 
Far back as memory's willing pinions cleave. 

Mine was a path by thought of God unflecked ; 
And still her woof doth reason blindly weave 

With doubts and strong ])rotests — thus faith is checked 

" Yet this, alas ! describes but half my woe — 

To hush ni}^ conscience more were base and craven-— 

I am a slave, a menial cursed and low. 

Of appetite which, like a black-beaked raven, 

Feasts night and day upon my vital parts ; 
'Kor can I break the Gorgon's hated power, 
'Tis in ni}^ veins, I know — the fatal dower 

Of our ancestral blood. Toiled by its arts. 



EUPERT wise: a POETIC BOMANCF. 49 

My father fell in manhood's gifted prime ; 
And hkewise I must fall ; or — deeper hell ! — 

Eeason must sink, and I shall close my fated time 
[Not with a dash of wine, but in a madman's cell ! 

" O Madeline, thy pale and anxious face 

Looks on me through the night — the night that hides 
From thee and all the world my one disgrace ! 

'Tis false to say my fate Avith thee abides, 
But thine with me ; had I responsive will, 

I need but ope the way and thou wouldst come 
AVith all thy Avealth of love to keep and fill 

My weary heart. Stricken I stand and dumb, 
Adored one, before thy pleading gaze ! 

Those tender eyes shall haunt me to my doom, 
And thy sweet voice I hear in all my ways. 

O God ! this nightshade's death-distilling bloom ! 
Oft have I cast aside the drunkard's cup 

With awful oath to spurn it all my days; 
But ghostly hands have held its madness up. 

While fierce and loud my demon master roared 
And showed a ghastly whip of serpent thongs, 
Until I yielded what to man belongs 

And on my writhing soul the red wine poured! 

" Worse than a thousand deaths of death alone, 
Eemorse ! consuming hell within the soul; 

A tossing waste, a burning desert zone ; 

A starless sky where wrathful thunders howl ; 

A curse of madness on the midnight air — 



50 RUPERT wise: a foe tic romance. 

These, more than these, my shrinking sense appall, 
And speak anew that awful word — despair! 

" Once, goodly legend says, a lonely youth 

Fresh from long wanderings in a desert waste, 
Seeking for strength in life — ay, death, forsooth, 

Sat on a tower's black crown that grimly faced 
The points of heaven and beetled o'er the massed 

And babbling sons of one wide race, that chased 
Through forms and feasts a hope that barely cast 

A shadow on their fading realm. He sate 
Measuring in thought the depth of that black pit 
Beneath the towering wall, and read dark hate 
In every face. ' Cast thyself down ; 'tis fit 

That thou shouldst spurn thy soul's untimely fate,' 
A spirit spake within ; but idle whit 

Moved not that moveless soul, but dared to wait 
Its fated end. Within me thus there cries 
A voice, loud as the clarion note of war: 
' Cast thyself down ; fierce are thine enemies ; 

The pit is fathomless— 'tis fitter far.' 
But else there cries : ' Not yet, not yet ; suffice 
Their wills; bide thou death's final battle jar ! ' 

" But must I bear this rankling to the grave. 
This thirst for liquid fires that sate not thirst ? 

That 5'outh saw holy grail whose drainings gave, 
Though dashed with bitter woes, a nameless sweet ; 

That grail whose draught my burning fancies brave 
Steeps in my heart until it fiercely burst 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 51 

And heals, yet never heals, itself to meet 

The curse again. I have heard say (O mind, 
My better motions, Avhere ?) a tree hath leaves 

To heal a wounded heart. Some spirit bind 
Them on the bleeding here, and let me sleep 

Sweet sleep, like those Arcadian dreams I find, 
When down still memor^'-'s vales I lonely go. 

O spirit of the silent hours ! O winds, 
That deign to kiss my aching, curse-marked brow, 

"Where mother's kindly kiss did never fall, 
Know ye no kingly spell above, below, 

No healing balm, no gift reserved for all 
That stays the flesh and fortifies the mind. 

Say, ebon night, where chance thy steps to fall, 
In all the realm that knows thy darker boast, 
Where still primeval shades and silence awe. 

Is there one hiding-place for man defiled? 
Deep in Yesuvius' thundering maw 

With stormy weaves of ocean o'er it piled, 
Or on the lone and bleak Siberian coast, 

O is there peace for me — a fated child? 
What sounds? The midnight mocks with scowling brows. 

The wind in idle, bated accents dies 
Or laughs a ghostly laughter in the cedar boughs ; 

ISTo peace ? the tongue that utters that is false ; it lies — 
Ay, peace there is, of Lethe and of wine ! 

Then touch me, Bacchus, witji thy wonted spell, 
Lay poppies on this throbbing brow of mine, 

This clamorous brood of conscience quell ! " 



52 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Herewith lie filled a beaker to the brim 

"With red resolving juice from Bacchus' bower, 
And o'er the beaker's chased and crystal rim 

Added the bane of Sinim's deadly flower, 
Quaffed it and sate as in remorseful pain. 

Then rose and lisped, as moved of newborn power : 
"Ah, peaceful exit from a dungeon's gloom, 

]Srow beats my pulse aright, my troubled brain 
Its normal force renews, my thoughts resume 

Their 'wonted trend, and now with might and main 
I must work up my treatise on the nerves. 

How fast ambition's scattered seeds do grow ! 

To-day they spring, to-morrow leave and blow ; 
The pupil speaks, and now the master serves ; 

AYith haste my name has gone abroad ; my pen, 

At will, meets those of all the learned men. 

" Let passion die since timorous faith forbids 

And draAvs its whiter veil, like daisies' lids 

At eve's approach ; die every wistful thought 

Save those ambition's fervid soul hath wrouccht 

To do and dare what meaner minds forego 

From sheer consent that reason falls below ; 

Dark science hence shall o'er my passions reign 

And know my arduous suit, till reason gain 

The longed for goal. Then plucked shall be from out 

The garden of my life that tender doubt 

That long hath swayed my wish and secret lent 

Unto my years its mild atropic scent. 

Plucked let it be, though every sj^ray should bleed 



RUFEBT wise: A POETIC BOMANCE. 53 

And cry, with human anguish, for the meed 
Of longer stay — 'twere folly ! let it bleed! 
Ay, perish leaf and root, and leave but scant 
Of memory's self, ambition's goodly plant 
Instead grow up a lordly tree, and cast 
Defiant front before the driven blast. 

" There is no truth in man's evolved frame 

Of nature or of supernature's claim 

I may not know and shall, hence here proclaim 

My freedom from all lesser things — ay, more! 

Hear it, my ampler powers! there is a store 

Of wisdom in the outer world, and hence 

No mind has dared to climb. 'Tis high pretense, 

But thou shalt tread that dizzy eminence. . . . 

Where lore of crucible ai)d astral chart 

Has failed of nature's secrets, braver heart 

And truer science all shall bring to light. 

What rising dreams expand my soul's delight ! 

That which is named for want of nobler sight 

Or fate or death or dire misfortune's might, 

Is but of nature's cause and lies within 

The mastery of mind, as aye hath been 

The ponderous forms of being, soil and tree, 

Rivers and rocks and gold and waste of sea ; 

Be this my task, like those in legends old. 

Yet nobler panoplied with strength as bold, 

To hunt this dragon of a newer ao;e 

Through aerie paths and war exterminate wage 

On all his hateful brood ! 



54 BUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

" Fade, then, ye dreams 
Of soft infolding light ; before me streams 
The glare of fiercer days, wherein for fame 
And sense of proud renown I enter claim. 
But stay, my thoughts, why weep this buried love 
That will not die ? The singer, fain to prove 
In sordid ways and selfish acts, his mind 
To mammon wealth and worldly greed inclined, 
Hears sighing oft his long neglected harp. 
And move him where he may, or join the carp 
Of idle tongues, he still must hear its notes 
Harmonious, breathed above the miser's dotes — 
Eeproachful snatches of forgotten lays 
That plead return, if haply, to their days. 
All broken lies my harp ; I hence must hear 
But echoes of its plaints, as on the sear 
Disrobed willow-boughs its fragments hang, 
As oft before, when pensive love unstrang 
Its golden wires. Farewell, love's riven shell, 
Sweet hopes and tender sighs, adieu ! farewell ! 
Another life I enter on ; I can, 
I dare the task that crowns and scepters man ! " 

Loud raps without now reached the student's ear. 

" Who's there, a patient or a visitor?" 
" Neither, and yet are both in waiting here." 

With this wide open flew the lattice door. 
And one, well known to those who far or near 

Walked through the town, stood in the open way- 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 55 

An ancient man who bore an antique lyre 
And sang as any chanced to fee his lay. 

" Why up, old man, at this unseemly hour 
When spooks and bats for hurt of man conspire ? 

You should be quiet in your easy bed, 
For withered limbs like yours demand repose." 

"Alas, to find my crust of daily bread 
I am content ; no home the singer knows, 

And it so falls that, though in street and bower 
I've sung the day-dream out, sad and unfed 

I stand before you now. The generous light 
That through your open casement shone 

Bade me come in and freely name my plight. 
Pray lot me cheer you with a song ; alone 
You seem ; a pittance to the old man thrown 

Will stay his heart and make it glad to-night." 

" Even as you wish, my reverend friend. 
And, to begin with, here's your fee in gold. 
But mind you, in your song no knights of old, 
No love-lorn wight, I'm in no mood for these: 
Some weird, night-born strain will better please. 

Let it smell of crumbling tombs and church-yard mold, 
Or ring with goblin shrieks and wails of sprites, 
Or moan with dirge and cant of priestly rites 
That mock to shame life's cold and hopeless end." 

Then bent that reverend man a courteous knee 

And murmured low : " Your wish I can fulfill ; 
What these dim eyes have seen, and yet may see 



56 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Before they close in peace their heavy lids 
To that last sleej), I sing. What is to be 

:N'o mortal knows ; occult is that high Will 
That ruleth all. The Power that speaks and bids 

The mountains melt, that stills the angry* sea, 
In His own chosen time will chano-ea brin<r." 

With this the singer swept the wiry maze ; 
His Hds, responding, these weird accents raise : 

1 " Ere the wake of the morn 
Was the pestilence born ; 

And his foul and dragon-like wings spread afar, 

As he i^ondered him there 

In the hot fetid air 
Over ruin more wasting than famine or war! 

2 " I looked, and a j^inion 
Had claimed as dominion 

The sea and the isles and the salt-scented gale. 

Quickly turned from the sea, 

Like the wind flieth he. 
Till his pall he had cast over earth's favored vale ! 

3 " The sun seemed to die 
In his path in the sky, 

And wildness and terror filled city and lane ; 
The hot tear of sorrow 
Was quenched ere the morrow. 

And the dead were interred by the moon's silent wane! 



BUPEBT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 57 

4 "A low, ceaseless wail 
For the smite of the vale 

Hose mournfully, ringing from river to sea, 
And the nations in dread 
Watched the plague's wasting tread, 

Impotent to stay, but praying the end might be. 

5 " Then away slow it crept, 
As the fierce cloud is swept 

From the land when war's wild alarums are o'er. 
And a remnant returned 
Where its madness had burned, 

But the flower of the valley returned nevermore ! " 

The song was done ; as though he fain would read 
The singer's thoughts and motives ill ascribe, 

The student stood, but quickly thus instead: 
"Ah, thou hast well and duly earned thy bribe ! 

Oo, therefore, now and find what most you need — 
Some wholesome food and wine — then with the tribe 

Of Morpheus blest, seek thou the toiler's meed." 

The singer hence the student left alone. 

Assayed once more to guide the magic steel. 
But languor named the fiery brain its own, 

And bold designs that logic sought to seal 
Went fading into dreams and phantasies. 

"Aha ! " he cried, " my friends too quickly steal 
My sense and touch with velvet sleep my eyes ! 

Decreed, I must my task lay by and snatch 
From toil an hour of rest, although the prize 



58 liUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Ambition holds demands of all despatch ; 
And he who would the wreath of laurels wear 

Must comfort, ease, and slumber sacrifice. 
Before the earliest rays of dawn appear, 

With rested limbs and quiet nerves I'll rise 
And thus my state will much the theme reveal." 

The brazen clock, held firm and safe on high 

By that grave tufted Sire of all the years, 
Its gilded hand the lonely hour brought nigh. 

The dial's tale was read : as one who hears 
The measured waves of ocean pulsing by 

And sits in dream.y mood, nor recks nor stirs 
Till beats the tide his chosen seat around. 

So sat the student, while the waves of time 
Echoed along his soul and sleep profound, 

Like rising seas, closed o'er the outer man. 
Slow rolled the heavy hours till twice around 

Its measured course the tireless index ran ; 
The dying hour unloosed the clanging chime 

And thrilled the sleeper's hot and dreamy brain. 

Startled, he woke with sudden, stifled cry 

And bounded from the cushioned seat amain. 
Smote through the air, as fiends he would defy ; 

Then sorely mocked his fears with cold upbraid 
And murmured : " Sleep is peaceful now no more ; 

Such dreams and visions, mingling light and shade, 
Yet most, alas ! of shade, wove in my brain. 

That shattered loom of thought ! But ere they fiide- 



BUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 59 

I must their order seize. Portend they do, 

If ever dreams portend, some evil sore. 
Let's see, the land was fair — twx) woes it knew ; 

Not so — there came a darker scene before ! 
So — yes! I have it now, the darkness grew, 

Dim horrors rose and night shut out the view! 

" I must at once this vision strange unfold. 

Is it some grim chimera of the night. 
Disclosure of that world I am so bold 

As to deny? or vision meant to fright 
Anid drive me into faith in gods and spooks? 

If that be so I gladly make the fight ; 
BebeUion is my flag. I learn from books 

That dreams are baseless things, the idle fruit 
Of chance concern, the, freaks of heavy brains. 

I well believe it so, and this 'twould suit 
To trace to that old singer's cursed strains 

Wherein he wailed of death ; but here of late 
I am a coward grown and look for evil ; 

If further creed did not eventuate, 
I should, from sheer constraint, admit the devil. 

I have a thought, I'll act it out at once ; 
There is old De Erl who boasts clairvoyance, 

To test his arts I'll be this night a dunce ; 
The feat, I ween, will cost me small annoyance 

And respite give from thought. The place is near ; 
'Tis only four, and Stygian darkness reigns. 

I can with ease disguise my face ; I'll wear 
This cloak, so none, except at greatest pains, 



60 RVPEBT wise: a poetic romance. 

Could tell whether 't\Yere man or womankind ; 
I'll hawk this reticule as further blind, 
So those who see me by the wizard's light, 
Will say I seek a patient in the night." 

An easy journey through the starlit street 
His footsteps brought to where abruptly meet 
The stony pave and river's sloping brink. 
Here moss-clad oaks and dark mac^nolias drink 
The misty air and drag their pendant boughs 
Along the crumbling cliff. / E'en when glows 
With scorching flame the noondays sun, a shade, 
Like that which filled the Labyrinthic glade, 
3Iantles the slope down to the river's edge 
And flings itself along a terraced ledge, 
Midway between the clifl" and upper world. 
In umbrage hid, like shapeless boulder hurled 
Prom some primeval rift or igneous trap, 
A gray adobe, cringing, holds this lap 
Of flood-disputed earth — a fitting place 
To shelter cunning deeds and hide the face 
Made gross by sordid thoughts and selfish lore. 
Therein from unremembered days before 
Dwelt old De Erl, the wizard known of all 
Through dark repute, who from his cloister wall 
Was seldom seen to stray. 

Him, burdened sore, 
The student unannounced now stood before, 
Who rising, surpliced full in textiles rare 
And decked with emblem gauds and jewels fair, 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 61 

In gracious wise, received his youthful guest 
And bade him freely name his mild request : 
" Great honor 'tis to serve so fair a cause 
As that I fondly ween, which hither draws 
Your obvious haste. 'Tis granted unto few 
Such secrets to divine, but wisdom true 
Is justified of all her faithful ones 
(The boastful proud are not of wisdom's sons). 
A mother fond and doting she, her love 
Is kept much as we seek to win and prove 
All other preference high ; she must be served 
With filial warmth and passion unreserved. 
Full threescore years I thus have sought to fill 
Her every charge and meet her regal will. 
The stars I know and tell their occult law ; 
The human senses own my power ; I draw 
All secrets forth from envious fate. 
And j)oint the soul besieged to better state." 

The student heard confounded and amazed. 

Such bold unstaid pretense his reason dazed 

And stirred the bubbling hotness of his brain, 

Till evil visions in perverted train 

Floated before his sight and, madness fed, 

Into his eyeballs each an arrow sped. 

But soon recovering thought and equipoise 

He thus rejoined : " Unless too much annoys 

The theme, explain, I pray, why thus attired 

And at such hour? Whence have you thus acquired 



62 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

So rare an art that slumber rules you not, 
Kor dreams disturb ? Thrice enviable lot I " 

"No art is that; I sleep when others wake; 
The heavy-hearted most themselves betake 
For comfort from my lips 'twixt day and day ; 
The spirits, too, most aid when night holds sway, 
And dearer far to me than sunshine's glow 
Are night and yonder darksome river's flow, 
AYhen wintry shades, like grim and fabled Thor, 
Walk down its liquid path. The ceaseless war 
Of midnight torrents dashing past the base 
Of that dark cliff, transcends the songs that chase 
"With ravishment of light and all sweet sounds 
The car of day beyond the crimson bounds 
Of sunset worlds. But this obtrudes the way ; 
Unfold your wish, I praj', without delay." 

" In me thou seest one whose soul has known 
This night a weary journey through a land 

Of changing scenes ; a fear now weighs me down, 
I pray you tell me why ; open, expand 

My sight to see and know the hidden cause. 
If thou be what thou claimest, to command 

Were easy task. The wild capricious laws 
Of mind should yield their service unto thee, 
Since of such knowledge thou hast mastery." 

" Thou asketh much, yet maj^'st thy wish obtain 
By spirits' help, and these I may retain. 



BUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 63 

This table oft has shown enchantment pure ; 

Herewith 'tis mine departed ghosts to lure, 

And call with certain arts the saints from heaven ; 

These will thy secret thoughts, if they be given, 

Link one by one in wisdom's magic chain 

Until it pierce the future's wide domain: 

Sun cannot shine through wall or pitchy cloud ; 

No ghost walks from the tomb without its shroud ; 

-Stars, shadows, dreams and of the mind a stint, 

Suffice my art — now of your wish the faintest hint." 

^'Alas, no comfort bideth here ! I seek 

What you by cunning would extort : a dream 
Disturbed my sleep — 'tis gone — to have you speak 

Its essence, show its end and firmly seam 
Its parts I came. Butiblly's price is paid, 

And as my reason warned, your arts are shams, 
Like other juggling priests', and I have laid 

Your ghosts ; but know, though twenty drachms 
Less one, of mad nepenthe fire my brain, 

I see and kindly take your studied pain." 

With this he turned and left the juggler's door, 
And soon at home was seated as before. 
Seeking to drown his troubled thoughts in work. 
But naught he touched but proved a heavy irk. 
" No rest, no respite from this dream," he sighed, 
" Nor can I tell its order, or decide 
Whether to let it do its work and die, 
Or seek a further meaning to descry. 



64 BVPERT wise: a poetic bomance. 

Ah! here's a ray of hope: when but a child 

I oft observed the farmer's wife who dressed 
Our dairy's store (a gentle soul and mild, 

And full of guileless superstitions pressed), 
When troubled what to do or left in doubt • 

As to the right of aught in act or creed, 
Take up a well-worn Bible, gaze about 

In thought and then at random ope and read ; 
And if, perchance, the phrase, ' It came to pass,' 

Should meet her eyes, for good or ill decreed. 
Forthwith 'twas so, nor dared a soul trespass 

The law. Here lies that Book ; I sometimes read 
To prove it false, but if it have one word 
To soothe my fear, it shall with joy be heard." 

AYith trembling hands he oped the sacred Book, 
And caught the page with quick and searching look ; 
Amazed he read : "And it shall come to j^ass " — 
O magic sign, flashed through prophetic glass ! 
When destined years have purged with crucial fire 
A nation's life and God has hid his ire. 
When lengthening shades portend the peaceful night, 
In that mild evening time " it shall be light ! " 

As sweep the first soft winds of coming spring 
Through winter wasted meads, and j^assing fling 
A faint perfume, from Southern bowers stole. 
Along the darkling hedge and wooded knoll, 
So through the student's inner sense there broke 
Sweet memories of his golden days, and spoke 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 65 

Of perfumed haunts, hard by the paths of love, 
Where dulcet voices bade his soul aj^j^rove 
The nobler joys of life. Though faint they came, 
They hushed to calm the siren voice of fame. 

'Tis love transmutes the thorny crown to gold ; 
How brief soe'er its spell or passioned hold, 
It fetters ill, bids weak imprisoned hope 
Once more attempt its grated doom and cope, 
New panoplied, with fate. Brief, like the cup 
Of April clouds, love's chalice holden up 
Baptized his spirit's grief, till moved by straint 
Of unseen power, he rose and lisping faint 
Between his parted lips, he swore an oath, 
An awful oath, to ban his curse. As loath 
To let its accents die, lest purpose fail, 
He held the words till seemed his breath to wail. 
5 






\Q e)' 



GhMO FQURTH. 



-[ 



I. 

rrlHE earliest rays of dawn gleamed on the east, 
j. And Love's white planet paled and died l>efore 
The glow of young Aurora, whose warm breast 

Gave nature joy. Dark ships, with sail and oar 

Of gold, that Argonautic wonders bore 
Stood slowly out from day's dnn rest 

Into the dusky sky, that isle and shore 
Of magic cloudland filled — alas ! that best 
Of nature's glowing charms should find man still unblest. 

Faint from the quay, where man and driven beast 
Groaned through the day, came hum of early toil. 

And cry of those whom cruel Avant oppressed ; 
The outcast, filled with shame of night's despoil, 
Shrunk into coverts dark and deeper toil 

Of hell's device, to hide the soul beneath 
Its curse, its vileness under that more vile; 

Self-stung, like vipers, tasting of a death 

That guilty fear saith will not end with mortal breath. 

II. 

With thoughts alternate, swaying as before. 
Sat Eupert Wise. A rap without now drew 

(66) 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 67 

Him quickly forth : " Ho there ! who storms my door ? " 

"A son of ^Esculapius, chilled with dew." 
He ojoed, and lo ! the form of Jean Pasteur. 

" Good dawning, Doctor ! Enter-; health to you ! ' 
"And health to you and honors many more ; 

A i^atient well beyond the town has lain 
In wavering state. I tarried over night 

To watch his pulse and 'leviate his paiu. 
In passing near, your very brilliant light 

And, as I thought, a troubled voice within 

Caused me to fear you might be ill. The sin 
Of passing by in doubt would heavier fall 

Than that which risks the rousing one from sleep 
Even at this hour, for rest the choice of all." 

"In truth, I am not well," said Wise, "I keep 
My work in hand, yet find each added call 

Must lack because of slowly ebbing strength. 
Of late, I get no rest in sleep ; my frame 

Thrills like a tensioned lute-string, and at length, 
Unless I get relief or seek repose, must fail— 

Vain hope the one ; the other voids my aim." 

Pasteur in silence heard, but breathed aside : 
"The wine-cup, O that ever saddest tale! 

With soul enslaved, what boots the smile of fame ? 

What's sense of present worth or learning's pride 
Without that nobler hope to light the vale ? " 

" My dream ! my dream ! " cried Wise, with nervous start, 
"I had a fearful dream that, palling, fled 



68 BUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Like lowering clouds that angry lightnings part, 

And left my mind with ragged racks of madness^ 
strewed. 

To call it back I toiled, but vain my art ; 

Now all returns ; by chance I catch the thread, 

And though to heed such things would ill beseem 
Our better minds, yet, on my troubled head, 
The thing suggests a curious and perplexing dread. 

Thus ran my thoughts and thus j^roceeds the dream : 

THE DEEAM. 

"Alone within a charnel-house I walked, 

Whose ample dome seemed as the heavens outspread ; 
The constant shades that filled the awful place 

Were somber 'twixt the gloaming and the dread 
Of deepest night, so that my eyes might trace 

The aerie outlines of the forms that stalked, 
Like sullen sentries, through the silence there. 

My footfalls echoed on the crivsted floor, 
As when one treads alone deserted streets. 

Or summer waves break on the sandy shore ; 
Even now my warm blood back retreats 

To think what reeking foulness filled the air ; 
My heart grew faint and sick, I tottered, reeled 

And straight must needs have fallen, prone and dead ; 
But one who seemed to mortal men allied 

Sustained with stalwart arm my sinking head 
And to my nostrils odorous herbs applied. 

Half borne, half forced by hands the gloom concealed, 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 69 

I moved along those dim sepulchral halls, 

Then slowly down a wide and gradual stair; 
^ot long even twilight blessed my aching balls, 

But black Tartarean night and wintry air 
Engulfed my frame. Upon my ear there fell 

Beseeching cries that sank to sobbing tones, 
Like wintry winds that sigh through ice-mailed pines. 

As down we moved, still deeper swelled those moans 
Till all that waste of dark abysmal mines 

Echoed with more than woes of Christian's hell. 

" Kissed by that chill, that dread and rayless night, 

My fevered brow grew cool, my strength returned, 
And with it came a haunting, voiceless fear. 

I gasped and clutched my speechless guide, who 
spurned 
My vise-like grip as manhood spurns a tear ; 

My soul was stirred, and in its puny might 
Stood forth and through my j^arched lips cried out : 

' Whoe'er thou art, and what, to me means naught, 
Yet thou hast led me hither, and I brave 

Thy deepest dungeon and thy darkest thought ; 
Lead toward thy extreme wish, or fiend or man. 

Though to that blazoned pit thy hidden j)lan, 
Unshrinking hence my willing feet attend, 

That truth to fix earth's sons have vainly sought. 

" 'Ah, mortal,' spake my guide, ' thou dost not well 
So much in wrath and madness to declaim, 

Thou wanderest not in dungeon or in hell, 

Ay, thou hast sought my mysteries and my name. 



70 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

My name is called the Past, and yon lone hall 

Which late you trod, the SejDulcher of Time ; 
Those aerie forms are Centuries, Ages, all, 

Those poisonous damps, that foul and reeking slime. 
That life assault and ^])\Y\t sense appall, 

Eise from the tombs of avarice, hate, and crime, 
And crumbling empires in their destined fall 

Heap ujD their shame and feed the noxious clime ; 
This yawning gulf, in ebon darkness veiled, 

UnjDierced by sight, by mortal unexplored. 
Is called on earth the abyss of human icoe. 

Hither eterne are brought and deeply stored 
The griefs of all the years that mortals know, 

Eeckoning since man o'er nature's waste prevailed. 

" ' These piercing cries, these wild and dirge-like moans, 

Are borne from lands where war's grim form hath rose, 
From cities smit with sword and famine cursed ; 

Thebes, Troja, Carthage, all have sent their woes ; 
Yea, Christian years, with history sad reversed, 

From Acre's gates to Khyber's blood-stained snows. 
Have made these depths resound with more than mortal 
groans ; 

^S'or wars alone on heathen heads exhaust. 
But in the name of that sweet Christ who died. 

And dying sceptered love, zealots have tossed 
To shame and cruel death their kind. To hide 

Their infamy and feed their monstrous lust. 
Emperors and kings accusing earth have dyed 

With guiltless blood ; hence these ascending groans! 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 71 

And war's twin sister, direst pestilence, 

Hath fed with agonies of blighted homes 
A mad and Styx-like stream, that coursing down 

Its horrid path into this darkness comes. 
Thus hast thou seen the sable midnight frown 

That hides the ages dead. Their fetid tomb 
Has sicked thy soul ; and rising moans that drown 

All cheerful thought, and name time's certain doom, 
Have filled thine ears ; from these much may be known, 

And thou may'st read the future's testaments. 

" ' In Mizraim's land, the tyrant kings of eld, 

Mummied and known through strange-wrought hiero- 
glyphs, 
Who that predestined shepherd race compelled 

In bondage sore wHat years the ecliptic shifts 
Eull thrice three hundred times its blazing field, 

Builded beneath the desert's sandy rifts 
"Wide wondering halls, high-domed and ceiled 

With stones granitic from old Nilus's gifts ; 
Neath pyramidal heaps anon concealed, 

With yearnings raised, and time that lifts 
Its light on all, hath scarce their sites revealed ; 

Still through their waste the gloom of mystery' sifts, 
Yague dreams of what is on thy sense annealed. 

" ' These be the immemorial woes of man, 
Ever renewed. But thou, or ere thou rise 

To drink again the genial day, shalt scan 

The source of one mad wave that woe supplies 



72 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

To this black gulf, surpassing all. Not so 

In long forgotten years ; a thermal rill, 
Droj^ping along the pitchy rocks below. 

But swollen now and hot with lava tides 
Of mortal and immortal griefs, leaping 

Like those red tongues along Yesuvius' sides ; 
The Amazon were but a nameless thing 

Beside its liquid leagues. Deem not unwise 
The past since ever thou hast prayed to know 

The secret springs of mortal miseries — 
This shalt thou see and trace, companioned so.' 

"Upward we moved counter to those first steps, 

And stood, methinks, upon a massive tower, 
But darkness as before. As when one sweeps 

With straining eyes at midnight's central hour 
The wintry sky for one pale star to guide, 

So swept my sight that nether gloom ; but vain 
The task, save that I saw upon the side, 

That seemed the west thereof, the faintest stain 
Of crimson, spreading like the first cold gleam 

Of Borealis on the northern skies, 
Or waking in the mind of other dream 

When from the nightmare's horrid chill we rise." 

"'That,' spake my guide, 'marks where the living day 
Begins its course ; thither our passage bends.' 

Swinging a ponderous door, he led the way 
Along an open vale whose slope descends 



BUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 



73 



^Vitli gentle sweep toward a stream, whose waves 
Eoared like a thousand maddened fiends at war; 

The mountains trembled overhead, like knaves 
Before the judgment-seat, their ceaseless jar 

Making the dead air quiver like a snared bird. 
Onward we moved with slow and stead}'- pace 



Tl 



iroug; 



h ever lessening night, and still was heard 



i 



The thunderous sound of waves, but less apace 
Its volume grew, as lesser grew the tide. 

The quivering air was still, the mountains sank 
To gentle hills, and round on every side 

Were pleasant vales, embowered with vines. I drank 
The breath of morning in uncertain light, 

And owned the smell of vintage ripe and sounds 

Of revelers and stringed lyres. 

" To right 

My guide turned quickly, and we pressed the bounds 

Of that fierce river, whose unmeasured length, 
Our weary feet had tried, and now in twain 

It parted, flowing in unequal strength ; 
The lesser tide welled from the vintage plain. 

The greater came from marish gloom and fell, 
Through pitchy banks beneath the rajdess night 

Of hemlock shades ; its black and lang'rous swell, 
Pat with the reeking lees and oozy death 

That dropped from still-house bins and brewing vaults 
Of one black Wizard, seated underneath 

A mountain call the Mount of Rest — but false 
The name — drinking from golden chalice human tears. 
And feasting night and day on childhood's flesh. 



74 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Compelling those who till the valea, through fears 

And magic deeds and threat of wizard leash 
To waste their wealth for his voracious lust — 
I saw, and with my guide the scene discussed. 

"As on a cloud my form seemed lifted up 

And borne along the liquid, yielding air, 
Keeping the tenor of the valley's slope. 

What sweet forgetfulness of pain and care 
Possessed me then ! though all in fancy's scope, 
And brief; for now the abyss, the vale Avere gone^ 
My feet a goodly mountain rested on. 
And lo ! from out the nether night a dawn 
That, breaking, brought celestial splendors forth ; 
From east to west, from south to north, 
The slender shafts of morning sped, 
And Phoebus up his azure pathway led 
A host of glories, shouting as they went. 
Young Spring had spread her emerald tent 
O'er all the hills and plains below ; 
A silvery brightness touched the flow 
Of distant streams and threading rills ; 
While incense, such as sylvan censers fills. 

Perfumed the kiss of every soft-mouthed breeze. 
With rapture thrilled, entranced I stood 
As westward rolled the rising flood 
Of amber sunshine, wave on wave afar, 
Where, like the beams of morning's amorous star, 

The dew-drops glistened on the trees. 



BUPEET wise: a POETIC MOMANCE, 75 

" Day died, and with a fioiy plunge the sun 
Dropped through a haze behind the level west, 

Trailing new splendors in his wake ; 
Day dawned, and as the light looked o'er the crest 

Of eastern hills, I saw the plains awake ; 
The virgin task of Spring was done 

And motherhood was on the fields that spake 
With other voice and clothed in other hue ; 

Summer had come, and waving corn 
Stood where but late the rank grass grew, 

And through the mild and balmy morn 
I saw the glint of spires, the curling blue 

That told where grange and growing village stood ; 

Yet still primeval calm was seen to brood 
O'er half the world that fruitful summer kuew. 

'^'Twas eve again, and night came on, and day 

Eeturned when round his path the Titan rode, 
And then I heard an unseen Presence say : 

'Look forth again ; behold the years have strode 
Beyond thy ken ! ' I looked, and autumn lay 

In wealth of golden glory at my feet ; 
Paled all the fabled dreams of old Cathay 

Before that world with every good replete. 
' I saw rich cities with their clustering fanes 

And stately towers rise through the morning haze. 
While far as sight pursued the level plains 

Was still unrolled the pageants' flash and l)hize ; 
Hard by their walls great rivers poured along 



76 BVPERT wise: a poetic eomance. 

Or swej)t in silent majesty their tide 
Through fertile vales where, stirred by labor's song, 

The millions called with easy toil and j^ride 
The harvest forth of fleecy wealth and golden corn. 

Laden with stores and gifts from every clime, 
With offerings from the sacred gates of morn. 

From lands that knew the haj^py youth of time 
The argosies of trade were on their bosoms borne. 

"Anon the sky grew dark, and, pealing far, 

Deep thunders smote the general soul with dread ; 
I saw the i-ace rise up for glorious war 

And shake the hills with pomp of martial tread, 
When notes of trump and drum swelled on the air. 

The lords of spreading fields, palatial seats, 
And liveried trains went forth — a knightly band ! 

Thrice cruel war when man his kindred meets ! 
""Twas so — and kindred blood dyed all the land, 

Till in tumultous rout the weaker hurled, 
With gory hands, the stronger legions bade 

And shook with awful force the listening world j 
But breaking thunders in their burning track 

With gathered bolts returned and burst anew 
With fury multiplied; the mountains shook. 

The swollen streams ran crimson to the sea, 
And all the land put on a drear and ghastly look; 

The fields were waste and bare ; while tongues of fire 
Licked up the j^ride that late had made delight. 

Meanwhile a nation's hope must needs expire ; 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 77 

The flickering taper burned with fitful light, 

And then in one great gust of war was lost. 
Hark! in that night what heavy chains ftill off 

Two races in the conquered land — the slave 
And him who held ! Truth unadorned is truth enough ! 

I saw the last of that chivalrous host 
Throw down the broken reed of hope and crave 

To die with those more blessed ; in mournings deep 
They sat amid the ruins of their land ; 

But not for long did they in sorrow steep 
Their warrior souls, but soon with righteous hand 

Swept down the puny tyrants of the day 
And swore for freedom's latest smile to keep 

Their rescued homes — freedom their ancient stay! 
And now with peace there came again repose, 

As comes a calm when Boreas' reign is o'er; 
Yea, and a beauty in the new land rose 

That shamed the tales of Aiden's fairy lore, 
Dimmed all the glory of the old and strove, 

Sun-like, with hatred wheresoe'er it bore, 
Till fell on all the radiant light of love. 

"Again the Presence cried : ' One woe is past ; 

Another darkly falls ; part of thy dream 
Has been, and part shall shortly be ; the last 

Is kindred to the first : divine them as they seem. 
Look forth ! I looked, and lo ! where virgin peace 

Had widely spread a Avhite and sheltering wing 
O'er rij^ening fields and city's fair increase 



78 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

There crept, with tigress tread, a treacherous thing 
Whose stealthy touch outrivaled war's red hand, 

For, Herod-like, it spared not tender years. 
A Memphian wail went ringing through the land, 

A cry that echoed death and all its fears ; 
The j)lague, with brazen hand, was everywhere, 

And stalwart men in madness prayed for frost 
When summer's heat turned hope to blank despair. 

They prayed, and then, as reckoning folly's cost, 
They cursed their God and faithless died, and none 
Might pity or remember them ; each one 
Thought only of himself and of his own. 

"And then, methought, ere slumbering daAvn awoke, 

The heavens gave frost ; the while the shrill north wind 
That drave along the level plain and shook 

The j)earl-bespangled trees shrieked like a fiend. 
The moon, declining toward her quarter next the last. 
Sat on a heap of lurid clouds and cast 
A pale and death-like gleam o'er i:ill the scene. 

And here and there a star would faintly glow 
And then sink back into the night unseen. 

Like eyes that strive to keep the death-sleep off, 
Yet less each time of vital essence show ; 

Thus in its blessings nature seemed to scoff 
At man's deep misery and to mock his woe. 

" I sat to watch the multitudes that passed. 
Some came with shouts of reverent joy to kiss 
The hem of that white robe and lingering taste, 



BUPERT wise: a POETIC BOMANCE. 79 

In open fields and on the mountain-tops, their bliss ; 

Others with grateful tears bedewed the way 
And blessed the hand that sent the gracious boon 

To re-establish in her rightful sway 
Happiness which, like a dove that, soon 

As o'er her home the eagle's shadow glides, 
Flies swiftly to her covert and abides 

Till all her trembling fears are past, had flown, 
But now returned to bless and keep her own. 

The mighty temples cf the land were filled 
With thankful worshipers, whose reverent tones 

Mingled in one loud symphony anid thrilled 
The general heart with praise, and orisons 

Arose from nature's every vocal power. 

" I saw a mother, weeping as she came ; 

Pale was the sunken cheek where beauty's flower 
Had blushed in girlhood's fairer day ; her frame 

Was bowed and trembled on her knotty staff, 
Like autumn's seared and lately widowed leaf. 

She knelt and kissed the hoar-frost on the ground. 
As the poor faithful dog might kiss the hand 

That lays the heavy blow ; yet was her wound 
I^ot healed, but rather had its fever fanned 

To wild delirium. Thus aloud she sj^oke, 
Or rather wailed, for pangs of sharp despair 

Slew woman's faith and doubled sorrow's stroke: 

" ' faithless one, why hast thou thus delayed ? 
Why cam'st thou not in early autumn fair, 



80 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Ere death had on my tender beauty preyed 

And borne my golden treasures hence ? Went first 
The orphaned nestlings of my eldest born, 

The beauteous girl that bore my image erst ; 
But there was still a prop — a single stay — * 

The younger of my twain, the noble boy 
On whom I leaned, who filled my widowed day 

With peace and all my nights with dreams of joy. 
But now his brow is fevered unto death ; 

He knows me not, nor even speaks my name ; 
His sunken eyes, his hot and bated breath. 

Burn through my soul with fierce and torturous flame. 
And he must die ! must die ! My boy ! my boy ! 

Why hast thou thus delayed? This fatal morn 
Eobs me of my last dream of earthly joy 

And plants in this old withered heart a thorn 
Whose ranklings hand of death alone can end. 

Come, death ; thou art a dear and wished for friend.^ 

"A low funereal sound rose to my ear. 

And high along the mountain's sloping side 
I saw four sable forms, bearing a bier, 

White decked as ever lily in its pride, 
Toward the wooing silence of a wood ; 

Whereat, descending slowly, far behind 
I followed till the moving pageant stood 

Beneath the boughs, low whispering to the wind. 
Of century -gnarled oaks festooned with moss. 

That hung like drooping banners o'er the dead. 



EUPEBT WISE: A POETIC IWMANCE. 81 

Nearer, anon, I drew beneath a cross 

Crumbling with waste of time and overspread 
With lichens and the tendriled parasite, 

Where those four sable forms their trust did place 
Upon the fresh brown earth, breathing no rite. 

But mute did turn and down the mount retrace 
With measured march their steps, leaving to me 

The silence of the place and that white hearse, 
Unhonored and unsepulchered. 

" I see 
E'en now that ghostly sight, not ghostly then, 

But soothing like a dream my inmost soul. 
Ay, did I dream? The Avild flower's modest sheen 

Varied the green of many a mound and knoll 
That hid the sacred dust. The trailing vines, 

Jasmine and cy|)ress, round each towering bole 
Wrought flowery capitals surpassing those 

Of old that guarded Corinth's proudest shrines ; 
Moreover, on my sense perfume of rose 

And breath of all rare blooms exotic stole ; 
While music faint, ftir off and undefined, 

Yet sweet as voice of love, was on the air ; 
Two doves, winging that freedom unconfined. 

Staid in their flight and perched above the hearse. 
Their plumage shamed beside the whiteness there. 

Ne'er seemed the tomb so calm, so void of fears, 
So much to be desired as seemed it then ; 

I longed, e'en prayed, to die and lie beside 
That spotless guest of death. Madness of men, 
6 



82 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Desire for other state, o'erbore the pride 
Of school and skeptic faith. 

" Long time I stood, 
While reasons that my reason knew not of 

Wrought in the dark arena of my mood. 
Veering a season toward belief; to scoff 

My doubts forgot ; and then a time it seemed 
To have my wish of death was granted me ; 

But all things ran as ever when I dreamed, 
I could not die, yet was I not left free 

To choose my former state of life. 

"Fate moved; 
I lifted from the face of that still dead 

The white veil's folds. Well-nigh that rashness proved 
My end ; the face was fair as ever shed 

Love luster on the world; who had not loved 
In life had had no soul for beauty's self! 

A sight was heaven, yet, in a moment, hell 
It flung through all the empire of my soul. 

Trembled the solid mount with earthquake swell; 
The air grew hot as at the middle pole ; 

The pendent moss became alllivmg flame 
And every idle leaf became a devil's tongue. 

Hissing with fiendish glee a childish name 
Of innocence, unspoken since my life was young. 

I had no power to speak nor strength to fly 
More than the chiseled stones that told the dead; 

A thousand years it seemed were passing by, 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 83 

What time I stood wrapiDed in that blazon dread, 

But strength returned, and then I fled, but vain 
Was flight ; those hissing tongues pursued me still, 

Cursing, I know not why, with nameless pain. 
Parted the earthquake's mumbling lips ; the hill 

Yawned to its everlasting base ; I leaped 
Into its jaws with smell of fire scath 

On my robes, like they to Zoar fled, when swept 
Jehovah Admah's vale with fiery wrath. 

I heard the riven rocks close o'er my head ; 
Still hurtling down, through voiceless depths I fell, 
Haj^jDy to hide me in the deepest hell ; 

But in that central world's mid-air I woke ; 
The clammy death-sweat on my forehead stood 
And spent my pulse. ' 

" What madness have I spoke ? 
Adjure me that I be but flesh and blood 1 " 




GAfiTO FIFTH, 



O EYEN times, less one, the sun had passed below 
^-^ The leaden west, hard on the mystic point 
"Where cross the circles in the equal flow 

Of day and night. Seven times the sheeny glint 

Of Luna's sickle, mowing without stint 
The star-beams, filled the fields of upper blue, 

While some who saw at eve its blood-red tint, 
Deemed it the scj^the a viewless chariot drew, 
Eate driven the while its path of ruin to pursue. 

Wild terror swept the city then ; the air 

Moonlit, and vap'rous from the river's breath, 

Quivered with sighs and accents of despair. 

As though he stood in shape, that monster death, 
And cried each soul forthwith should fall beneath 

His dreaded hand , the people trembled all, 

For hour by hour there gained a whispered breath 

That for six days within the city's Avail 

The plague had wrought — how dire the stroke that soon 
must fall ! 



The populace surged madly to and fro. 

Their pallid faces 'neath the wavering light 
(84) . 



1 



BUPEBT wise: a POETIC BOMAXCE. 85 

Hivaled the white foam on the murky flow 
Of great Missouri, swollen from the height 
Of far Montana's mountains, snow bedight. 

Some filled the night with muttered cursings, loud 
Blaspheming that omnific Name whose might 

Staid not the plague ; and some were speechless cowed, 

But the many feared and prayed, putting trust in God. 

II. 

*' What means this madness?" cried a swarthy wight 
Presh from the labors of the forge, " a sight 

To make one think of those wild tumults seen 

When Federal cannon knit their flames between 
These hills and yonder stars. To what intent, 
Good friend, is all this "hurry, whither bent 

This surging crowd?" he asked, addressing one, 

A toiler like himself, who, still as stone. 
With deep reflective purpose stood apart 
From that mad human tide. 

"Why, man, what art 
Is this you boast," was held in stern reply ; 
"AYouldst mock a public fear, or thus decry 

The deep concern men feel for those they love, 

Or are your ears so dull as to approve 
!N"o sound like that which fills the air? ' Tis known 
The fever cowers in the lower town ; 

A hundred cases came to light since eight ; 
Nor can there be a doubt that all unknown 



86 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Amid those slums and haunts of vice the fate 
Of quite as many more is sealed." 

"Alas! 
I had not dreamed such evil state obtained ; 

'Tis but this moment I essayed to pass 
From toil to rest; yet have you well complained 
At speech that seemed somewhat to lightness turned. 

How entered in that plague, Avhose name so late 
Was made the butt of learned jest and feigned 

Therein hobgoblin dread ? Well done, to wait 
The fatal hour before they raise a cry ! 

Where are our wise, the keepers of our health, 
Who thus have slept with death and furies nigh. 

Feasting their pride and jesting, while by stealth 
This hellish minion took and held the gate? 

What does the city do?" 

" You greatly wrong 
Our public men, and more especial those 

Who watch the city's health ; for oft and long 
They counseled care within. Our outer foes 

They fought at odds that none may fairly rate. 
Thus comes this present ill: 'tis shortly learned 

An upward boat put off its sickened mate. 
And from that spark the deadly flame has burned. 

What can the city do ? Each separate case 
Will make its twenty in a fortnight more. 

AYhafc shall we do, 'twere better asked, to place 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 87 

Our lives in safety ? what is there in store 

For those mad souls who think to stand and face 
The baleful thing? 'tis but to feed the flame; 

The more that fly the fewer fate will slay. 
One only course our better thoughts can claim; 

We must be gone, and that without delay. 
To-morrow's dawn in this grim seat of death 

Shall find me not. I wait no prophecy 
Of knowing ones ; but ere the poisonous breath 

Of night steal, thief-like, through my cottage door 
\Yith wife and little ones I shall away." 

" I share your mind, and shall not question more, 
Save that I dare to bide the coming day." 

Thus passed the eve of that eventful night. 

Meanwhile the town's physicians, watchful, wise, 
And quick to hear the call, sprang to the fight 

Like soldiers on the field when foes surprise. 
In council brief they tarry while, as wont, 

Their senior speaks: "Ko matter e'er hath called 
Us forth so grave as this we now confront ; 

No darker shadow o'er our homes hath palled; 
Not when we felt erewhile the iron brunt 
Of savage war seemed hope menaced so much. 

I read our doom as though 'twere writ in lines 
Of fire on yonder wall, the fatal touch 

Is on the air ; but courage that repines 
Unworthy is of noble trust. To say 

What shall be done to light the coming curse 



88 BUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Is ours; to meet the plague and, if we may, 

His doings circumscribe and break his brazen force. 
My mind is quickly to this point advanced : 

That we at once the people recommend, 
At least such as be to it circumstanced, 

That straightly they do fly, and thus defend 
The city's present and its future good ; 
And lest the order be misunderstood. 

And since the case is urgent, brooking not delay, 
I would that mounted heralds, swift and fleet, 

Should scour the city ere the break of day, 
And cry this pressing word from street to street." 

Thus closed the leader, when was heard once more 
The mild Acadian voice of Jean Pasteur : 

"To me it seems of wisdom's better part 
That we should lend ourselves to duty's deeds 

"With partial care, nor all should court the dart, 
Whilst few can meet what cause the present pleads. 

As for myself, being exempt from dread 
By dint of passing through a former scourge, 

I offer here to lead or to be led 

"Without delay into the monster's lair 
To give him stubborn battle and to purge, 

If Heaven shall please, our city of his doings there. 

Like captain, grown impatient with debate, 
"While alien feet profane his native land. 

The student Wise arose from where he sate 

With peers, and thus prorogued the learned band : 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 89 

"A prudent course bespeaks itself to all ; 

'Tis honor moves to pluck the flower of war, 
To walk unflinching to the martyr's fall; 

And yet the future's good requires we bar 
Our more insane desires till greater cause 

Shall call us singly to the utmost strife. 
In furtherance of a larger end, a pause, 

A husbanding of strength is wise, for life 
By life is saved. Let of our number those 
Who know this yellow scourge their skill opj^ose. 
1 go, who follows let him follow close." 

As when in ocean's dark and middle waste 

There runs along a vessel's crowded ways 
The dread alarum cry of fire, till haste 

Makes thought, in that extreme of danger's maze, 
Forget its wiser self and madly leap 

For life into the friendless ocean's arms, 
So in that hour, with haste and hurrying step, 

Moved by the first dread sound of death alarms, 
Thousands poured forth into the fields and wood 

Beyond the fated town, the vaulted sky 
Their only roof, their only couch the sod — 

Meaning with earliest light of dawn to fly 
For refuge to the mountains' crystal air. 

The evening meal, untasted, kept the board, 
Guestless and cheerless, while the feeble glow 
Of unsnuff'ed tapers turned the temple home 

Into the semblance of a tomb new stored 



90 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 



With lifeless clay. Silence was there, and gloom 

Walked through the iinshut doors, sat at the board,, 
And S]3read his dusky couch in every room. 

Now turn we from the smitten town awhile 

To follow those its children fled in haste, 
Happy to find in self-imposed exile, 

'Mid the wild primeval and the waste 
Of mountain wolds, a refuge from the plague. 

The risen sun pours floods of amber light 
Along the mist, baptizing cliff and crag 

With filtered beams, and, where the vales invite, 
Wasting a lavish warmth ; weird fingers sweej) 

The strawy crowns of immemorial pines. 
And through the darkling hills the myriad armies weep 

The everlasting dirge of time. Long lines 
Of weary exiles move to these wild strains 

Along the narrow passes of the hills, 
And thankful hearts lift up a psalm that gains 

Upon that deep, sad voice of pines, and fills 
The waste, like Israel's song by Egypt's sea, 

Till thousands swell the anthem's loud amen 
To lower notes of angel minstrelsy. 

As springs the leopard from some flaggy glen 

In Indie jungle to the hunter's path. 
So from their coverts armed peasant bands 

Bound forth and bar the way with signs of wrath, 
Their long and murd'rous rifles held in hands 

That knew a cunning half of savagery. 



I^v^^fe, 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 91 

Awhile the startled exiles wondering stood, 

Eunning their wistfnl eyes between the sky 
And that gray rock and hoary wood 

Whence came a rustic voice with these demands : 
" Back, fleeing lepers, reptiles, instantly 

Return, nor dare one further pace to come ! 
Back with your fevered bodies and your poisoned rags ! 

This side that rock you die ! Go, make your home 
In yonder lordless wild, or back where drags 

Your nursling plague his length through slimy streets I 
This, madmen, be our home, this mountain air 

Is pure ; these pines distill life's healing sweets, 
And taint them you shall not; doubt me and dare, 

Then shall you see how men become a law 
Unto themselves, and haw defend their own. 

Our Aveapons you desj^ise ? If I should draw 
This silver bead against yon hill-top brown, 

Then woe the antlered roebuck browsing there; 
The soaring vultui'e and the screaming kite 
Essay in vain to mock with heavenward flight ; 

The leaden echoes climb the yielding air, 
And bring the treach'rous thief to humblest plight." 

A shudder swept the list'ning throng, as when 

On mild October eves at set of sun 
A sudden breath of winter touches men 

With icy chill ; all felt that wrath to shun, 
And fain had turned, but rugged steeps arose 

On either side and hundreds pressed behind. 



92 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Some pleaded in the name of right, and chose 

Strong speech, but moved no whit the rustic mind. 

A priest, who led the remnant of his flock 

From threatened death,now forward moved and S2:>oke 
The leader crouching still upon his rock 

And glaring down with eyes that seemed to smoke 
In wrath. Thus railed the priest, with steadfast look; 
^' Then must we quickly perish ! Do your work ; 

Our lives are little worth at best. 'Tis well, 
Perhaps, they ended thus ; w^e sought to reach 

These heights, as pilgrims seek a shrine. 'Tis well, 
Since hope is false, we died ! Yet is your heai-t 

But stone to hold such stern inhuman speech! 
Say, in your home dwells there man's better part, 

A wife, and children, meant of CTod to teach 
All nobleness of pity and desire 

For others' good ? Then view these helpless ones 
That cry for bread. Know you no passion higher 

Than selfish wish, nor honor that atones 
For kindness costing aught? The cooling draught. 

Ministered in love, to life's deep river turns 
In that fair clime of future good. Fate's shaft 

Is swift ; its length the taper quickly burns ; 
Our whit'ning bones will turn your evil craft 

To bitter use ; so shall these infants' cries 
Mingle some day with those your own shall make. 

Eemember how the Lord in judgment wise 
Brought evil for his smitten people's sake 
Upon the lands of old, because they said, 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 93 

* Ye shall not pass.' His hand, may chance, hath led 

Our feet to these jour everlasting hills 
That you might succor with strong charity, 

And hide our little flocks from preying ills. 
Yet make we but the pilgrims' rightful plea, 

A peaceful passage through this public way, 
To rest awhile beneath these spreading trees, 

To slake our thirst from yonder spray, 
And, if the wish your better motives please. 

We pray the outcasts' mete of staying bread; 
If laid upon that rock you hold with care, 

You may depart ; to-morrow morn instead 
A heap of gold shall greet your eyes, or since 

You fear a poisoned gift, our sacred word 
Shall be your bond for such munificence, 

Till hope shall rift the clouds that late have lowered." 

Short parley held the leader with his clan, 

And then returned with rifle's front reversed, 
Looking more kind and more resembling man ; 

Full stern his speech, though calmer than at first : 
"Mark well," he cried ; "this will we do, nor less 

Nor more: bread shall you find hereon, nor ask 
We gold or bond our kindness to redress ; 

This fountain and these shades for comfort task 
For one short hour, and then with haste pass on ; 
These hands of ours will see our bidding done." 

The peasant left to bring the prayed-for bread, 
The way-worn exiles one by one arrived, 



94 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance, 

A motley band. Proud dames and they who led 

The festive throngs of honor, when to give 
Delight the queens of fashion strove, must need 

On equal footing with the humblest live 
The season of their pilgrimage. The screed 

Of family, recked of much Avhen fortune smiles, 
In shadow of the tomb none boast or read. 
The priest beholdmg one new come with speed, 

Thus greeted him: "I trust, good friend, the whiles 
Tou fly, you hope. When quitted you the town?" 

"At noon three days ago, and with hot haste 
Both night and day have lashed the hackneys on ; 

Now will I rest, here j^itch my tents and taste 
The sweets of sleep ; here lay a burden down 

That has since that dread night one week ago 
"Weighed on me sore. The babes are ill, and worn 
The mother with her vigils and suspense." 

"Alas ! it grieves me to advance your woe. 
But here we may not dream o-f rest, but hence 

Must go in one short hour. Our presence here 
Has roused the native clowns to war; our breath 

They seem to fear will spread infection dire ; 

That ledge of shaly rock that flanks the brook 
Is fortified with rustics armed for death, 

If we essay to pass ; but this they took, 
That by an hour's space we rest and slake 

Our thirst ; while on their guarded rock they lay 
A dole of bread, which, they retired, we take 

And then with hurried steps pursue our way." 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 95 

"Alas ! 'tis death before and death behind ! 
Better to perish in our homes and find 
A Christian grave than fall among these Avilds 
Of want and inhumanity. Death builds 
His wall on every hand ; accursed, like Cain, 
We rove, and men will aye our suits disdain." 

Much pitying him, the holy man replied once more : 

"Be not so much cast down, my son, I pray; 
The valleys rich are scarce one day before ; 

These reached we shall find plenty, and withal 
Pull kindly hearts and many an open door ; 

There may we safely dwell till heaven let fall 
Its boon of frost, and end our evil day. 

But tell me, friend, since you the latest left. 
How fared thereto the wretched town ? what pace 

Had made the plague — where most his pathway cleft, 
Where spared he most, where left his deadliest trace ? " 

"A faithful tale would beggar human speech ; 

The dead are everywhere ; from morn to noon, 
From noon till eve, from eve till middle night, 

The silent palls go unattended on, 
Nor voice of prayer, nor sound of sacred rite; 

Even love, that ever gentle ministrant. 
Is robbed of power to keep its holiest trust. 

The stalwart man, the helpless innocent, 
Alike are victims made, that lesson teach 

Old as the tomb, scarce hid in parent dust. 
The marts are still j the streets, once thronged, are 
hushed. 



96 BUPERT wise: a poetic eomance. 

Save for the tread of flying messengers, 
Who, oft o'ertook themselves, fall senseless, flushed 

To sudden death by fever's quenchless fires. 
Unwatched, unblessed, the poor and friendless die; 

Their j^utrid corses lade the deadly air 
With newer germs to spread contagion round ; 

Beside the son the father falls ; from sheer despair 
The mother by them both. The priest is found 

Bead by the altar, or the sacred place 
Becomes the chamber of his closing hours. 

The kindly simple minister of grace 
Within the humblest cot that knows his round 

Is smit, and yields anon his mortal powers. 
The fearless son of science, set to heal his kind, 

Unequal to these cruel arts of death, 
Not only fails for others' ills a cure to find. 

But falls himself, slain by his patient's poisoned breath. 
While thus the stealthy work goes hourly on,. 
j The swollen river lifts a deep and dirge-like moan." 

"Sad tidings hast thou multiplied this day! 

(God stay the plague, else should no flesh remain !) 
'Tis well the shadow only haunts our way ; 

Christ measures woe in love ; the deeper pain 
Is hid through shortness of our mortal sight. 
We may not know our loss till milder days 
Break on our path and touch of autumn smite, 

Through calms of hope, the dire amaze 
That wrecks our sky. Yet runs my thoughts on one 
To whom clave hope, so nobly held and done 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 97 

The task he took, the first to brave the dread ; 
1 mean the stripling Wise, who elders led 
To battle with their fate, and fell straightway 
Stricken with fever ; some believed that day 
Would end it. Know you, lies he with the dead ? 
For much in prayer his name I breathe, between 
A doubt and hope — ripe honors may he know ! " 

" I wist not ; yet, when as to leave the town 
I made, this tale fell on my ears anon, 
Not all unvouehed : Three days he lay as dead. 
When came a fair, frail girl, who well, 'tis said, 
Has loved him from her tender years ; and wise^ 
As well, it seemed, from those first auguries 
Of youthful days, so fair his form and face, 
So rare his gifts of mind and early grace ; 
But ere their time for plighting bridal vows, 
Through force of false and curious lore that bows 
Assent to despot sense and fair device 
Of learned doubt, he wandered far astray 
From truth. Led by his father's evil star, 
With boon companions of the bowl he sank 
Deep in the shadows of a thralling vice. 
Which blighted his and that young life, so near 
A part of his. She, faithful still, but frank 
With fear, withdrew upon her bridal day 
The circlet-sealed hand ; with promise made, 
If future days should shed unclouded light 
Upon his path, then would she yield him trust 
Of wifely love. Late had she sought to write 
7 



98 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance, 

!N^ew hope upon her life, and in the shade 

Of hills that guard her mother's native vale 

Had hid her burning heart. Therefrom the wail 

Of suffering called her to her father's homCj 

Where, shortly learning of her lover's state. 

She came, and by his bedside faithful sate, 

And with such care as wife or mother would, 

Kept watch ; but he, that took nor rest nor food, 

Eaved in delirium wild, calling one name, 

And that her own, as ne'er her love to claim 

(So went his rage), or see her face again. 

Wildly he talked of how by giant main 

They had been torn apart in early years, 

And she detained in some far gloom, with tears, 

Entreaties, prayers, regarded not, and how 

He needs must go to seek her and must show 

His love in worthy deeds and abstinence, 

And quickly would have risen, going hence, 

But that his nurses held him fii'mly down ; 

But on the fourth day, being left alone 

With only her, he rose and fled away, 

So swiftly fled that none might mark or stay 

His fleeing form. They mourn him dead, though none 

Dream where or how. 

" That fair young creature soon 
Was seized with fever equal his, and lies — 
Or when I left lay — in death agonies. 
I know no more, save that her name all breathe 
In prayer, and hold her love as conquering death ; 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 99 

And when the wrestling few who serve the sick 
Would to each other courage speak, or prick 
To some unselfish deed or task of martyr mien, 
They but pronounce the name of Madeline." 

As with a single voice, the multitude 

X/ifted a lamentation, like the cries 

Of those who left Solyma's palaces 

To waste in the Judean solitude, 

Touched by Jehovah's wrath, while they in tears 

And bondage sore fulfilled their captive years : 

" How sits she desolate, who once beside 

The monarch wave was peerless, like a bride, 

Eeceiving gifts from him whose watery arms 

Encircle her, as lover's clasp the charms 

Of her new wed. Heaven's blight is on thee shed, 

Thy songs are hushed, thy mirth and joy are fled." 

"Ah, miserere! " moaned the robeless priest; 
"Ah, miserere ! " sighed each burning breast ; 
"Ah, miserere! " sounded toward the East; 
"Ah, miserere ! " echoed from the West. 



CRMO SIXTH. 



I. 

/TtOKENS of nature's wrath — fire, hail, and storm, 
]. The lightning's brand lit from the pit of hell, 
The cyclone's awful breath — swept all the form 

Of mount and hill, as fierce and loud they fell 
From heaven's black-vaulted roof Swell after swell 

The torrents rolled along, and filled the vales 
With foam - flecked meres. Woe ! woe ! to those who 
dwell 

Beside the swift-waved streams ! Woe to the sails 

On seas high lifted by the equinoctial gales ! 

The storm was overpassed, and came a calm, 

An autumn calm, to nature and to man ; 
Transfusion soft of odorous scents and balm 

To fit her beauty, faded now and wan, 
For silent slumber in the grave by span 

Of winter's chill and uncongenial days. 
A slow and measured throb of music ran 

Along the pulsing air, as when one plays 

To sounds of dropping nuts and leaves the iv'ry keys. 

Far in the dim and silent autumn woods, 

Through paths with spiteful brambles overgrown. 
And deep and long untrodden wilds, where broods 

(100) 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 101 

The niglit-hawk's mate and plaintive wail and moan 
Of whippoorwill and owl disturb the noon — 

So deep the gloom beneath those tangled boughs — 
Wandered, with starless wish and mind o'erthrown, 

The student Wise, his darkly knitted brows 

And trembling frame bespeaking pain and l^roken 
vows. 

II. 

" Dreams, dreams, a mocking frenzy murders thought, 

And reason's throne supplants with pallid fear ; 
The downy plumes of light impending air 

With mountain heaviness compel me here ; 
A giant's brazen arm were futile fare 

Against these links a thralling fate hath wrought. 
Bides there indeed a twofold essence here ? 

Or am I but a part of all I see — 
Insensate brother of the rock, a sphere 

Of action filling higher, yet less free. 
Than yonder clambering vine ? To caprice wrought, 

To end of folly and the base desire 
Of some dread spirit reigning in this wild ? 

And art thou, Solitude, perfidious sire 
Of all my woes, and hast thou hence beguiled 

My wandering steps, veiling an evil j)lot, 
To bind me to the rock of cold disdain ? 

Fulfill that wish ; thou canst not nobler crown 
Nor ampler wealth confer. The Titan's chain 

My heritage, I ask no more renown, 
Nor sighs my soul for pleasures sweeter got. 



102 BUPERT wise: a poetic R0MA2iCE. 

" Somewhat there is, in truth, that men call life^ 
A spirit essence, flung from unknown heights 

Through depths and darkness into fateful strife 
And conflict with unequal force, that smites 

\Yith fierce, disloyal hand its own defense ; 

That stays to shame prepense its own delights. 

And buys despair with mind's immortal recompense. 

" Is this with me that being's primal morn, 
Cast from the womb of silence at her will, 

Or have I palsied lain while tireless years 

Have run their course, yet, nathless, suffering still? 

There seems a past, a past of doubts and fears. 
But of its changes, seasons, naught is borne. 

Save that I lived and something lived beside. 
Or else I saw myself move through the light 

And knew communion, while a less'ning tide 
Of passions, bosom born, returned dehght. 
As on yon lakelet's face the mountain glories burn."" 

Thus moved the student's wavering mind, the while 
He sat exhausted on a mossy pile 
Beside a sylvan lake fed by two brooks 
That wore their channels into eddied nooks ; 
One sent from distant fenland's grassy pride, 
The other murmurous from the mountain's side ; 
AVhich, when the errant breezes ceased their calU 

Intoned the harmony of falling leaves. 
These heard he : as familiar voices fall 

Upon the ear and reach the heart that grieves 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 103 

Its memories dead, so fell the liquid sound 

And quickened feelings that for years had swound. 

As in its purple morn the soul rose up, 

And drank again from childhood's dregless cup, 

Dreamed over dreams that blessed the sinless boy, 

And cried aloud the frenzy of its joy : 

" Hail, woodland melodies, preludes of hope. 
How swells my heart once more to hold in view 

That goodly sight, the mansion of my sire ; 
The whitening fields, the meadow's crown of dew, 

The haunted hills, aglow with sunset's fire — 
Alack, the shame ! my life's unfruitful scope ; 
Alack, the evil fruits that folly bore ! 

But I must suff'er, since 'tis so decreed, 
And since 'tis being's npbler ends that wait 

The issue of my sufi'ering state, and plead 
Supernal wish and conquering trust create, 

I lowly bow, the scepter kiss, the King adore.' 

A shadow, other than the mountain's, fell 
Athwart the surface of the lake ; the dell 
Re-echoed other than the streamlet's voice, 
And in that far secluded spot the noise 
Of human footsteps caught the student's ear. 
When furtively he glanced and saw him near 
A hermit strangely clad, with shaven head, 
Who at the sight of Wise had quickly fled, 
But that he rose, signaled desire, and cried : 

" Stay, brother — if that word conveys the thought 
That forms my wish — kindred, or being's shade. 



104 BVFtJRT wise: a poetic romance. 

Beturn, abide, and be companion of my care ; 
Here is my rest ; my vows hencefortli are j)aid 
Beside this gray and ancient rock. Come, share 
My thoughts, and cast with me thy lonely lot." 

Hereat the hermit staid, and thus replied : 

" Mortal thou art and kindred to my sense ; 
'Tis twenty years since mortal face I dared, 
Yet will I turn ; thy frail, emaciate form, 
Thy sunken eyes, thy voice by fast impaired, 
Forbid my fears and hate of man disarm. 
Speak, if I may some boon of good dispense." 

Wise. " 'Tis not the body, but the mind that cries 
For food, for surcease from its heavy weight. 

Sit thou beside me here, and enterprise 
An arduous task." 

Hermit. " But first, I pray, relate 

Why driven so far from human haunts ? why 

In communion as with morbid thoughts and fears ? 
Surely it is not oft thy wont to fly 

So far ; nor seems it me thy mind appears 
In wonted force, for thine is fair estate." 

Wise. " Truly I must be more than what I seem, 
But thought has lost the golden key that turned 

The bars of fate, that fai^it soever gleam 

Of peace might visit one self-loathed and spurned ; 

But what I feel or know — perchance, I dream — 
What matter? felt or dreamed, 'tis easy learned." 



RUPERT WISE: A POETIC ROMANCE. 105 

Hermit. " Mine ears are thine ; so long since human voice 
Their sense approved, and now with hearty choice 

Wise. "Ah, there bethink me ! patience, rest awhile ! 
Whence are we, hermit ? more than wont of man 
Thou seemest wise. "Whence ? whither ? whose at last ? 
When, like the summer winds or gust 
Of winter, sinks our sensuous breath. 
Hushed in the deep and mystic silences 
Of those far voids from whence alike they rose ; 
The winds sleep in their sea-girt caves again, 
Dirgeless and unlamented by the waves 
Whose tawny, sun-tried cheeks they wantoned o'er, 
Until they crimsoned softly here and there 
With sunset hues, or blanched beneath the glow 
Of silver stars. But is there naught that lives 
Eemembered of the Avinds' wide errant course ? 
Of sylvan wilds or trellised garden bowers ? 
Of rattling fleets of reefed merchant sails ? 
Of dalliance at soft eve or luteful sounds 
At early morn ? of lovers in their trysting-place ; 
Or merry childhood on the village green ; 
Or manhood everywhere, in peace, in war? " 

Hermit. " j^ay, life is not in memory with the winds, 
Nor echoes through their slumb'rous cavern homes ; 
Subtler its essence than the ether wave. 
Fleeter than fancy, rises to a higher rest, 
To sleep, to wait, to wander forth no more, 
Until the end, removed from earthly wisdom 



106 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

In the boundless reaches of the soul's hereafter, 
When, all things restored — like to its like, 
And god-like to itself — eternity its firm 
And changeless order shall begin." 

Wise. " Where are those dim ethereal spaces. 
Where the fitful breath and fiery thought of man 
Repose, abiding that eventful hour? Science 
Cannot discern their pillared fastnesses 
]^or tell their vaulted dome, nor yet . 
Hath hinted that they be. Winging a swifter flight 
Than condor of the Andes through his realm 
Above the waste of Chimborazian snows. 
Thought goes upward through the blinding maze 
Of planets, suns, and nebuke, whose fiery haze 
Unrolled, in fragments, from the everlasting scroll 
Held in the great right hand of God, 
When chaos kept the formless deeps below. 
Orb after orb pales in its lengthening track, 
While others dimly blaze and'wheel before. 
And some, girt round with many moons, 
And others — flaming suns themselves — compelling 
And, in their turn, compelled by other suns 
As satellites, and each a difl'erent sheen. 
Swift on ecliptic marches, centric and concentric, 
Making a centuried day of rainbow light. 
But, staying not, the vision j)lunges headlong 
Into sunless, starless wastes, black with the pall 
Of night, primeval night, only to gain. 
When myriad million leagues are measured through, 



BUPERT wise: a POETIC BOMANCE. 107 

A sight of white-flecked skies in deeper wikls — 

Monotony of wide creation's awful self! 

Where, then, bold wanderer of the night 

And pathless fields of star-flecked gloom, 

Where is thy lost brotherhood, where the place, 

The far Yalhalla, of their long retreat ? 

And where the hostage of the dust 

That once compelled their stay with sweet restraints?" 

Hermit. " That which thou seest is but the tessled pave 
And arched door-way of our Father's house; 
Hath not the Power that binds each planet 
To its sun, and these to nature's ancient heart. 
Hath not he scope to build him otherwhere 
And otherwise, beyond our sight, a spacious rest ? " 

Wise. "A handful of ground and molten sand, 
Shaped into kinship with the visual sense. 
Stole wondrous secrets from the voiceless nig-ht. 
Turned doubt to faith and faith to doubt, 
And made our lives seem less and nature more ; 
And what erewhile appeared a creamy stretch 
Of white coast lines, along which spent 
The furtherest waves of nature's starry sea, 
Before it broke and fled, and in its place 
Eolled still a fiery tide of orbed light ; 
But spectra of those furthest discs 
Tell but of kindred elements, nor hint 
Save of such forms as mundane wisdom knows : 
The crystal dust we grind beneath our feet 



108 RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 

Is like in kind the hissing lava streams 

That course the hearts of mightiest suns ; 

And not the tiniest sphere of evening dew, 

Or minim of the ether sea, but sisters 

Those vast firmaments, attenuate, void, 

Infolding solar fires. What then ? 

vShall spirit quit the ponderous forms 

And gross restraints of matter here. 

But to resume them otherwhere ? or cast 

One mold, and take its flight but to be clogged, 

Though nobler wise, with cumbrous life again ? " 

Hermit. " Matter is but mind's accident ; the dust 
Hath been full many thousand times alive 
With different sense and pulse. They who. 
Following the divine decree, lord o'er the earth. 
If phalanxed like an army on its march. 
Would reach well-nigh the ecliptic's blazing belt ; 
While those who have gone forth since time began, 
If marshaled thus, would overlap Arcturus 
And the stretch of wild Centauri's realm. 
The foremost moving thus, perchance, might sight 
The gates of that fair city in the wide beyond. 
If each had borne his death-devoted clay. 
Then had there been a waste and wreck of earth. 
Knowest thou matter? hath yet a human eye, 
With aid of burnished glass, beheld an atom ? 
In clusters seen, yet not in essence known ; 
Spirit thou seest not nor matter yet : 
There resteth mystery for the wise." 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 109 

Wise. " Hermit, thou talkest as a god might talk ; 
Thy words are wise and fair ; I could well think 
We walked in old Palermo by the sea. 
Or sat by Athen's walls in those old days 
When spake Aristo's son his deathless words. 
Go on; though weak, I hear with joy." 

Hermit. " ]^ay, lade thy mind not now with such high 
theme, 

Nor bid me, man unlearned and recluse, prate 
Of things removed from human sight and dream : 

Turn for a time to thoughts of humbler state ; 
A season, when thy wonted strength returns. 

We will such lofty things attempt. Now waits 
W^ithin my cot a frugal meal, and burns 

A fagot fire upon the humble hearth ; 
A couch is there of silken grass, and spread 

With fabric of the mountain cougar's swarth. 
There thou shalt rest thy frame and, breaking bread, 

Eemain till strengthened limbs may bear thee hence ; 
Or, seeming good, a longer season stay, 

And taste the freedom of the wild and fence 
The heart from earthly care, or make it aye ; 

And he who faileth first shall be to him 
Who thrives a care to lay him in the dust 

And shed a tear, chanting a lowly hymn 
Above his grave. 

" Thy grief and ail, I trow. 
Are of the heart: ah! there are songs within 



110 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

The compass of these wilds and winds that blow, 
Bringing a solace to the heart that sin — 

The raven torturer, sin — has sorely torn. 
Amid these sylvan shades, as in the vale 

'Twixt Tigris and the Gihon's wave, at morn, 
At eve, God walks ; and when the leaves do fail. 

As now, and gorgeous carpets clothe the hill 
And woven arras of the sunlight drops 

Around the woods, then choiring spirits fill 
The leafless groves and, in the hallowed stops 

Of organ winds, glide softly through the light." 

With troubled, yearning heart and upward gaze, 
Like sailor's through the misty morn or night, 

Searching for beacon o'er the harbor place. 
The student through his darkly clouded mind 

Strove for the light of that fair-limned peace ; 

But ever backward turned, made thrice more blind 
By what he felt ; till that faint memories 

Of what his unshod feet had hither moved, 

Broke on his brain, when with weak voice he cried 

" O dweller in the waste, wise art thou proved 

And happy in thy lot ! Since thou didst hide 
First in this lonely wild, say hast thou seen 

A maiden bound or wailing 'neath the pines. 
With tresses like the chestnut dawn and sheen 

Of lily crocus on her cheek? O shines 
The sun and comes again the dewy eve, 

And I no trace of my dear love descry ! 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. Ill 

May be, I vainly hope or, wandering, leave 

The truer path ; then tell me, has thine eye, 
In lowly vale where bending willows weave 

A woof of green before the quiv'ring sky, 
Beheld a bleeding heart, pierced with a thorn, 

And ruddier than its kind? That is my love's ; 
There she has died, and Dryad sprites have borne 

Her to their sisterhood, 'mid beechen groves 
And aspens whispering low ; and near it saw'st 

Thou but a broken stone, like chrysolite 
Wrenched from the parent mass by glacier's frost 

And worn beneath its icy heel ? O sight 
For mortal eye ! that stone is my hard heart, 

Its blessing that it lies beside her own. 
When shall this life's dar,k prison walls dispart 

And let me forth — to death, to life ? Atone ? 
For what? by what? for this foul deed of mine. 

Whereby I slew two hearts ? Methinks I hear, 
As from a far-off day and from a shrine 

Hard by a murm'rous fount, one sound that mocked 
And mocks me still : Atone ! the blood ! the blood ! ' 

Ah me ! it seems the sable nurse that rocked 
My dameless infant years chanted the same 

So long ago ! 

" O, hermit, is it true ? 
Is this that mount ? Ay, babbler, tell thy name. 

And let the curse descend. Too late for you! " 

The hermit answered not, seeing his thought 
Wandered in mental night, and that he seemed 



112 BUPEBT wise: a poetic bomance. 

Distressed with hunger and a thirst that wrought, 
Its desert dryness on his bloodless lips, 

. Parching the feeble words, and so he deemed 
It better to repair at once with this. 

His charge, into the cot, that distant seemed 
Hung like an eagle's aerie in the slips 

Of weathered rocks — the mountain's w^asting heart. 

So he the student lift, nor moved amiss 

A muscle in the act, and with the art 
And strength of mountaineer bore him aloft. 

And laid him on his couch, and, brewing tea 
And toasting barley bread, grown in the croft 

About the cot, he had the joy to see 
His guest partake, look up, and calmly smile ; 

Then, settling on the mossy couch, fall soon 
Into a slumber gentle, soft. Meanwhile, 

The hermit watched and wondered of this boon, 
Xot all delight, yet not displeasing quite. 

Which fortune charged him with. The sense 
Of loneliness so long had made its night 

AVithin that this became his recompense, 
That all the world of waste and rock, of wood 
And stream and cloud, yielded him brotherhood. 

And who was he, that hermit of the waste 

Who twenty years had shunned the face of man, 

And talked with winds and clouds, and lightly chased 
The elfin sj)rites of fancy through the wan 

Of autumn twilight, and had built a shrine 
Beneath the nightly stars to worship God? 



RvPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 113 

Who heard him walking, in the eve, and shine 

Of morning suns, through goodly vales ; who trod 

Himself the ways of prophet, sage and great, 
Of ancient days, abiding thus in nature's sight? 

What blight destroyed his early flower? what fate 
Impelled him hence, a loveless, friendless wight ? 

A melancholy, like the mist that time 

Spreads o'er a marish glen and lifteth not, 
The child of some swift 3'outhful crime, 

Through sore remorse, had made him choose this lot ; 
That crime, his name and all that told 

His past — a mystery, like himself He spent 
In simple toils and musings manifold 

On nature's goodly frame the days' content — 
At first through fear of man, at last through choice. 

And so he dwelt, and older grew and wise 
In nature's lore and thoughts of God, whose voice 
He heard in three great books — nature, himself, 

And that which came by fire. Then what surprise 
That, dwelling thus so near the heart, the self, 

Of nature, he should catch her words, and turn 
Them into grateful songs? for oft beneath 

The star-bedizened vault he walked, with yearn 
Of holy passion in his soul and wreath 

Of starlight round his head, chanting low, 
Sweet anthems — epics of the wood and strains 

According with the harping pines below. 

Thus, when the student sle^^t, and with her trains 

Still night was passing through the cloudless sky, 
__S- \ 



114 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Touched with a kindred sorrow for the youth, 

He wandered forth, deeming the Healer nigh, 
And to the mountain pine murmured his ruth : 

1 O dark-browed pme ! 

So like the shade of a grim old god 
Uprising against the starlit blue, 

And art thou a god. 

And I but a clod ? 
Thou weepest much, and I weep too, 

O dark-browed pine ! 

2 O dark -browed pine ! 

I must weep tears, and tears that are hot — 
Hot from a heart that ever hath fears. 

Ah, my tears are hot! 

But tears thou hast not ; 
Aye, weeping, thou never hadst tears, 

O dark-browed pine ! 

3 O dark-browed pine ! 

Thou hast a faith — a faith of thine own — 
Or else thou hadst quit the mountain rock, 

In storms that have blown 

With a wild winter moan, 
Else hadst thou reeled with the thunder s shock, 

O dark-browed pine ! 

4 O dark-browed pine ! 

And thou hast a hope ; thy somber shade 
The lightning shall kiss with lover's thrill, 



BUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 115 

ISTor ever that shade 
Know the woodman's blade ; 
Thine are the years of a century still, 
O dark-browed pine ! 

5 O dark-browed pine ! 

I hear thee oft in the deeper night, 
Sobbing aloud in a dismal strain, 

As never I might 

In that deeper night, 
Sobbing with all but a human pain, 

O dark-browed pine ! 

6 O dark-browed j^ine ! 

Is it all because thou hast no tears 

That thou wail'st so with an endless plaint ? 

Then half of thy years 

For the gift of tears, 
Though thy years were the years of a saint, 

O dark-browed pine ! 

7 O dark-browed pine ! 

This night, as never thou weptest yet, 
A wandering soul in the valley dim. 

Though his sun be set, 

And the night-dews wet 
The fleeing sprite — weep aloud for him, 

O dark-browed pine ! 




GANTO SEVENTH. 



I. 

-V TOW on the mountain stood the white-robed Morn, 

j ^ And waved a beamy scepter, while was borne 

Far through the waking vales heraldic notes, 

And signs of her approaching car. As floats 

The eagle upward, slowly round and round. 

The mist went upward toward the blue profound 

Of star-deserted heaven. The pale, sweet moon, 

Like hunter's horn at height of sultry noon 

Suspended by the stream, hung in the blue 

Below the birch-trees' arching boughs that grew 

Along the mountain's western slope ; a calm, 

A deep, soul-soothing hush, as when a psalm. 

By early worshipers devoutly sung, 

Dies from a great cathedral and among 

Its many pillared aisles broods voiceless prayer. 

Hushed all the mount and all the upper air. 



II. 

While thus the virgin day began her course 
Through cloudless sky and nature's calm, perforce 
Of nature's sweet restoring law, awoke 
The student to the light that once more broke 
(116) 



BUPEET wise: a POETIC EOMANCE. 117 

Upon his soiiFs unclouded sky. The shade 
Was gone; the fever's trace, the bane that made 
Of thought an as2:>ic's bite, were gone, and lo ! 
The soul beheld itself and knew its woe 
Unshadowed by a dream ; and quickly read 
A hasting doom, and heard not far the tread 
Of baffled death, stealing, like tigress on the prey 
-Chance struck by hunter's dart and fallen in the way. 
Moveless he lay, while trembling sunbeams kissed 
His bloodless lips, sweet emblems they of love. 
Eternal, mystic light, that leaping from above 
Struggled to force his soul with mercy's ray 
And kiss its darkest stains of guilt away. 

Seated beside the youth", the hermit saw 
His mind reclaim its throne, and felt the awe 
Of fast approaching death. In kindly tone 
He asked that dying wish be said or shown, 
When in a clear though slowly failing voice 
The answer came : " Hermit, I much rejoice 
That thus my end draws nigh ; kind fate reserves, 
I trow, some good that lucid hour is mine 
In which to die ; and yet how much deserves 
My soul a darker end ; but heaven or fate 
Or else, however named, is kind. I wait 
To know the utmost of the truth divine 
Or darkness of the night that mortals dread. 
But hear my tale, and then, if thou hast read 



118 BUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

In nature's goodly lore or elsewhere found 
A solace or a cure, ere that dim bound 
Of death I nass, speak to my soul a hope. 

"AVhat Summer's frugal care nad gathered up 
Autumn with lavish hand was strawing wide, 
And gloried in the waste, till Avasteful pride 
Had wrecked and left her sad — November drear, 
The mystic twilight of the fading year ; 
The season night — so says the chronicleer — 
An infant's wail broke on the stilly hour ; 
A life — my life — with its dark-fated dower. 
Woke to the light, while hers who gave me birth 
Went outward toward its rest — equal its worth 
I fondly trow, yet lost that hope hath been, 
Left aye to die in starless night of sin ; 
Brief on me beamed a father's face within 
A sj^acious house, ancestral home of wealth, 
With lordly grounds, oak-girt,, where love and health 
Might wedded dwell, and bring forth fresh delight 
With every changing hour. Fair to the sight 
The grassy lawns and breezy groves alive 
With warbling birds and bees that to their hive 
Bore honied treasures all the day. Shame fills 

Mine eyes with tears ! for then my soul was free ; 
No cygnet's down was whiter. From the hills 

That rose, like islands, in the ether sea, 
Minerva-like, a streamlet burst ; pure white 
Its waters, sparkling in the liquid light, ^ 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 119 

Yet not more i^ure than those white thoughts that erst 

Upon my spirit's forming vision burst. 

I heard the thunders walking through the hills ; 

I saw the panting clouds chased by the wind, 
And saw the lightning's burning blade that stills 

The heart, even as the hunter's bleeds the hind, 
Slash through its shaggy sides, until it bled 
A torrent like the sea ; and then that thread 
Of limpid water grew into a tide 

Of turbid blackness, groaning as it j^assed. 
The judgment's thunders — shapes of wrath — with stride 

To shake the mountain-pillared world, have traced 
My soul ; the fiery brand hath parted quick 
Joint, marrow, and the secret life, and thick 
Hath rained a scorching dew — pollution's shower 
That choked the limpid wish to this my fatal hour. 

" But backward let me turn — a summer day, 
A rare June day, or had been such, dare say. 

Death walked within the loi'dly house ; my sire 
Obeyed, and hence strong men bore to the grave 

All kindred clay of mine, save one not nigher 
Than fourth in blood. A thoughtless whisper gave 

My ears that day a truth not understood, 

Alas ! too deeply since, for through his blood 
Ancestral came my father's fate — a curse 
Of appetite, that fed, grew ever worse 
From sire to son and bore him to his doom 
In middle life. Short while within my home, 
Now doubly waste and haunted with the gloom 



120 BUPERT wise: a poetic bomance. 

Of long distressed, I tarried, choosing me 
(Such course the law permitting by decree) 
To dwell my youth with him my nearest kin, 
And so I journeyed toward the west, and in 
A home no whit less proud in boast or name 
Than that I knew before began to claim 
An equal hoj)e of life. My early woe 
Was soon dispelled, for in the ample show 
Of love my childless kinsman made I grew 
To feel a higher joy than e'er I knew" 
In years before, and else a well-spring burst 
Within my life ; a fount of j^eace that thirst 
Of unfed Avish assuaged, for hard against 
My kinsman's lordly lands another fenced 
AVith equal pride and equal cheer dispensed. 

" So fell a time in those first days, when through 
Adventurous thought, chasing delight where grew 
The hedge-rose and the brown ^thrush made its nest, 
I chanced to hear, in childhood's fairy jest, 
A little rippling laughter and a song 

That gurgled softly, leaping as from tongue 
Of bird or elfin creature of the field. 
I stood in transports, till my sight revealed 

The sweetest wonder of my dreams : a maid, 
A tiny, elfin creature of the field. 

Our neighbor's eight-year-old, had strayed 

u) the sunlight and the open waste 
Auu, ' ■■ the summer warbler, with a taste 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 121 

As dainty as herself, was mocking there 
The songs and laughter of the birds. O air 
Of summers gone ! O dreams of perished bliss ! 
O hopes deferred ! O love's first balmy kiss ! 
Eeturn, return again ! 

"Life grew apace, 
And hope went uj^ward, like the lark, to face 
The mighty sun and revel in his fires. 
What happy days went by ! and with desires 
And benedictions deep as life could hold 
Orew that sweet maid, and she was mine. The fold 
Of month on month and year on year, until 
Our lives did one fair book of pleasure fill, 
Made only more our souls each other seek. 
And mine was lost in hers and felt to speak 
Her purer thoughts ; yet, as the tendriled vine 
Leans on the oak, hers seemed to lean on mine. 
As some lost deer in lonely forest wild 
Drinks from the placid brook, and stands beguiled 

With semblance of himself upon the wave. 
So drank I from the light of her deep eyes 

And saw such stainless vision as they gave, 
And knew my nobler self in semblance rise 

And float their placid fullness through. 

" To dwell 
In that aureate glow, with her my sun. 

My virgin hope, far from the raging hell 
That woke my curse and fired my blood too soon 



122 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 



And scourged me down my fated path, had wrought 
My crown and made my bliss ; but kindly thought 
My kinsman moved to plan a fair career, 
An end whereby a goodly fame should rear 
My fortunes high ; and so I made to seek 

In learning's halls of wisdom's gifts a share, 
And hence should go at lapse of one short week. 

" 'Twas on an eve in that soft season when 

The bearded barley, ripening, bows its head 
To sweep of sportive Avinds ; the broad sun then, 

Creeping along the silence crimson red. 
Had dipped its edge behind the emerald sea 

Of forest glades beyond the river's bed, 
I walked with Madeline along the lee 
Of that brown waste of waving corn, and free 
And light our hearts as softest zephyrs' breath 
That stirs the fringed myrtle in the groves 
Faun held and sacred to the restful gods. 
The roving quails puttered in every heath 
And bluebirds in the locusts told their loves 
Or danced along the daisy-tufted clods. 
Above us bent the patient, dewy heaven. 
Like tender mother in her pride ; two stars 

Anon, like mother eyes, looked on us twain j 
Her hand was in my own, and we had striven 
To pierce the deep, sweet mystery that bars 

The future from the now ; with yearn and strain 
Of hope her lustrous eyes had sought the way 
Adown which walked the ghost of fading day. 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. VA. 

" Yermilion splendors burst a moment forth 
And half the evening's vastness penciled o'er, 
Hiding the light of those twin stars in fires 
Of mightier glow. Omen of goodly worth 

We read in such response to love's desires ; 
And holy thoughts leaped to my lips and bore 
Their transports through my soul, till speech was duinli 
Save in one mighty word, breathed till the air 
Was tremulous with passion's sacred sound. 
A quick, sharp cry from Madeline made numb 
My senses for a time ; I could but stare, 
Seeing her fljr like doe before the hound. 
Till, casting sight along the shadowy ground, 
I saw a serpent of prodigious size 
With maddened hiss and fiery, darting eyes 
Glide from the rye and pass between us twain. 
With fearful thought and pang of inner pain, 
I forward sprang and caught her to my breast 
And stilled her fluttering heart with lover's zest ; 
Yet liked I not the shade that held her brow, 
As some fore-fruit of ill, nor forth did go 
With morrow's dawn, when that for four long years 
I took my leave. 

"That morning marks the line 
^Between what I had been and what I am. 
Ah, could the sailor know the maelstrom stirs 

The sea within his path, he durst not quit 
The land-locked harbor for the wave ; so mine 
Had proved a happier fate, a nobler fame, 



124 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

To walk in that id^^lic dream and sit 

In that manorial shade, knowing no blame. 

"An ancient classic seat beyond the sea 

Eeceived me to its grim and ample walls, 
Where busted pride and living fame purvey 

All noble thought, till wisdom's portion palls 
Through goodly store and school-man's lavish care ; 

Yet aught, though all I failed to heed the cause, 
Weighed on me that the form bore not its share 

Of vital truth. Tomes, cycles, barren laws 

And endless reckonings, doubts, perchances, flaws 
And stresses of the mind, filled not the soul 

That early read the volumes of the field 
And measured by the sunshine and the roll 

Of boundless floods the problems of the world ; 

That knew but love as tutor, nor to yield 
Had ever thought a tittle of its dream. 

Into a semi-Arctic silence hurled. 
As from a luteful land of tropic gleam, 

I seemed to yield, and wrought in mines 
For gold and gems and deemed me wise to hold 
The tender sense in awe of that more bold, 

Which delved unfed, save on the husks and rinds 
That strewed the desert paths of Christless lore. 
But pleasure oped her gates and spread her store 

E'en in the desert world, and youth to youth, 
In friendship bound, held up the fatal pledge ; 

Convivial laughter and the bowl put truth. 
If truth, indeed, engaged, aside till edge 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 125 

AYas off the finer sense, and blunt and dull 
The nobler wish. Eestraint was not, nor voice, 

Nor Orphic string the frenzied thirst to lull 
And drown the sirens' song — there was but choice 

To leap and die, seeing no Ithic purpose bound. 

" I felt a demon rousing in my blood ; 

A fiery hell was kindled in my brain, 
And loud from out the silence woke a sound, 

A sound of doom, but all too late ; the chain, 
The heavy gyves were forged and sealed ; I stood 

A slave, as all my sires had been, and vain 
The voice ; for pleasure laid her balmy hand 
Upon my brow and far my native land, 

And all dear things it « held, drifted from sight. 
At length I woke in helpless pain and knew, 

God ! I knew my dungeon and the blight 
Of manhood's hopes, and love and mem'ry threw 

Their torturing sweetness o'er the troubled brain ; 
The serpent hissing from the rye, the face 

1 left with sadness wreathed, slew me with pain 
Of mad despair. 

" I rose at midnight's hour. 
With oath to live, and fled with frantic pace 

Through olden lands and cities boasting dower 
Of unrecorded pride ; beside all seas, 

Through holy haunts and temples of the gods 
Whose very names are lost, with listless gaze 

And longing after what I could not say. 



126 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

I Avandered by the space that Phoebus plods 
Three tmies around his orb-encircled way. 



''Eome's red palaces, Arcadia's misty hills, 

Old Gaza in the desert's heart, the waves 
That lap the Ormuz coast, where morning fills 

Her wasted urn, have heard my sighs, and graves 
Of swarthy kings in Ind and Aiden's groves 

Have wooed me for a time to think of Brahm 
And happy rest, where Soma's river proves 

The solace of all mortal ills. The calm 
Of Ida's wood, the mount of Thessaly, 

Beguiled me from my bondage for a time ; 
Ay, I have laid me down where old rhymes say 

The Titan, doomed to expiate his crime, 
Three thousand years in chains and torture lay. 

Caucasus, on thy rocky sides I sate 
And watched the green light of the meteors play 

Upon the streams that feedihe Euxine's wave ; 
To Joppa turned and through the valley gate, 

Esdraelon, passed where Kidron's waters lave 
The mount of sacred name ; the wailing-place 

Of Judah by the ruined walls I pressed, 
And from Golgotha's dark retreat did trace 

The wrinkled hills to Olivet — ^but rest, 
The golden boon of soul, found not, alas ! 
A pilgrim to all shrines, a worshiper 
At none, I turned me toward my home to face 
My fate and beg the love and hand of her 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 127 

T dared not claim through any worthy faith, 

Yet deemed that stay, with toil and student's lore, 

The last that held me hope — 

" Hermit, what saith 

The feeble pulse ? The fitful dream is o'er, 
The time is short ; it boots thee not to know 

The rest, to hold a withered spray of life 
In thy strong hands. I die, but quickly go, 
Ere thou hast laid me in a grave below 

Your mountain pine, and seek, if still in life, 

This sad-browed maid, this second soul of mine." 
Then from his hand he drew a golden band. 

Studded with one rich stone, and held it forth. 
^' Take this ; she will recall and understand 

The message that it bears, and deem it worth 
All riches of Golconda's store — the last 

Of all her gifts, when that she dare not give, 
Through deep-wrought fear, herself into my arms, 

And held me to return, when hope should live 
In equal purpose with my wish. It charms 

That hope from death, and, like the Levite's gems, 
Burns strangely bright, since heaven no more condemns. 

"N"ine leagues to westward, by the south, unless 
My judgment errs, the city lies, war-scarred 

And wasted now by plague. There Madeline, 
An angel to the poor (whose wilderness 
Is lighter for her face), by mercy starred, 

Waits with the sick — and she self-same maid 



128 RUPERT WISE: A POETIC ROMANCE, 

Of whom I spake. To her, if thou shalt find, 
Say that the sjDoiler's hand at last was staid ; 

At evening time the morning's glory shined, 
And that I died with faith in Him alone 

Who sees the sparrows fall ; my soul i^esighed 
To Him who died. If that sweet blood atone, 

My snared and trembling soul shall rest in peace. 

" Lo, now is life ! a vision sweetly dawns 

Like morning through the dome of forest-trees 
Of that old story told by thralldom's tongue 

In those fair days before my shame, which frees 
The soul while yet it serves ; a tale that wrung 

Compassion from the grave and senseless stones ; 
But by what law it works these late results, 

And strengthens every noble Avish to live, 
I know not, but 'tis so. I feel the pulse 

Of ampler thought and warmer hope relieve 
The dull, insipid course that reason owns. 

How should a slave know this and not my sire, 
Gifted with mind to shame a golden age ? 

How reached my soul aphelion of desire 
To read faith's mystery-lighted page?" 

The lids dropped on the sunken eyes ; the breast 
Was still, yet moved, anon, the pallid lips. 

"At even time," they faintly said, " light — rest ! 
At even time, at even time ! " As slips 

A star behind the gloom of midnight clouds, 
The spirit seemed to slip into the realm 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 129 

Of shades, leaving the hermit in his moods, 
Eecking of spirit worlds, as in a dream. 

All day he toiled, till eve, to make a grave, 

And when the stars shone brightly forth above, 
;N"ot turning toward the death-kept couch, and save 

To break his day-long fast, staid not through love 
Of him now dead and her who loved too well. 

So all night long by Bear and Dipper s aid 
He journeyed westward by the south. Through fell 

And gorge, by farm and lonely cot, he made 
His swerveless way. The watch-dog's midnight bark, 

The owlet's hoot or snort of startled hind. 

Were all the sounds he heard, save that the wind 
With thin and bated voice breathed through the dark 

Roofed pines and died 'in soughings far away. 
At length there came a sound of passing waves, 

Of distant waters moaning on their way ; 

Then o'er the forest broke the gloaming day, 
And soon the city's spires against the sky 

Eose dark and tall, and in the misty light 
He saw he walked a lovely garden. High 

The white-stemmed poplars rose, and left and right 
Were fragrant tlowers, green vines ; and marble shapes 

Cold white as winter's wing, thereby he knew 
His feet were once more with the dreamless dead. 
]N"ew sepultures, with clods still damp and red. 

Unmarked, undecked, by fives, by tens, and scores, 
Opposed each marble shape. Cold, dripping dew, 

The tears that mourning darkness kindly pours 



130 RUPERT wise: a poetic romaxce. 

From starry eyes upon the smitten earth, 
Gemmed every leaf, as though she knew 

Man's special woe and wej^t Avith deeper grief. 
Weary the hermit sat him down, and drew 

His hermit cloak about his form and read 
The names upon the nearest stones. Dim through 

The vine-foiled windows 'twixt the myrtle shade 
And wide magnolia-boughs, the river's glint 

Eose to his sight. A drawing back, a dread 
To face his fellows, e'en to the point • 

Of wavering faith, opposed his promise made. 

The mist-dispelling sun now waking, drew 

His chariot's golden wheel above the flood 
And scattered amber light, that on the dew 

Wrought rainbow beauty through the waking wood, 
Where glory called to glory. Solemn sounds 

Of distant bells disturbed the hermit's ears 
And woke from out his memory's still profounds 

Deep thoughts that sweetened hope in other years. 
He rose and moved with quick, impatient pace 
Along the bordered path, fixing his gaze 

Upon the distant tower Avhence came those peals 
That pleased and gloomed his soul at once. Kot wide 

He wandered from his seat, with fears and ills 
Of soul forgotten, when he saw beside 

The path, deep in the drooping willow's shade, 
And hidden half by lowly daffodils 

And autumn-penciled grass, a grave new made, 



liVPERT wise: a poetic romance. 131 

O'er which but once had brooded sable ni<^-ht : 

A broken lily at its head, a spray 
Of cypress by its side, spoke of the blight 

That closed untimely some young spirit's day. 
A sudden pallor swept the hermit's face, 

And consternation checked his cheerful mien — 
What if the rude white cross that marked the place 

Fulfilled his fears with tale of Madeline? 

Soon had his eyes the doubtful story read; 

But now the monkish sexton, like a ghost, 
Glided from out the shade with silent tread 

And stood within the hermit's sight. As lost 
To reason, each gazed on the other's face, 

Moveless and speechless for a time. At last 
The hermit spake, full anxious to displace 

The burden from his mind : " ancient man, 
I come from far with tidins^s for a maid 

Of one whose life is fled ; but fate outran, 
I deem, my steps. Fear tells me here is laid 

That Madeline whom all the city blessed ; 
If so it prove, thou need'st not know the rest." 

" I wist not if she live this morn, yet know 
She lies not here, nor had been laid, at eve, 

In any grave ; for with the dying glow 
Of yester sun, word came that she did live. 

And if her strength endured till dawn again. 

She would survive ; but yon loud death-bell's tones, 

That woke me from disturbed sleep, sustain 



132 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

The doubt I held, for scarce its lijDS with moans 
So deep had knolled another's journey hence." 

"It fits me not, O sire," the hermit cried, 

" To walk through peopled streets again, and since 
It more than seems she liveth not, should pride 

Of literal faith impel me to attaint 
A TOW so long observed ? Take this," and forth 

He drew the student's ring, "take this; acquaint 
The maid, if still in life, of this my tale. 

The place is thrice three leagues to east, by north ; 
A ragged hill that stands above the vale 

Where westward turns the tide of dark Yazoo; 
A hermit's cot beside a runlet's wave ; 

A lonely pine, piercing th' eternal blue, 
That Aveeps above her lover's unfilled grave. 

Will hold for many a mile the traveler's view." 

This said, the hermit slowly turned and strode 
With steady pace adown the silent wood. 






GANTO EIGHTH 



I. 

t lAIL! living Christ, whose soul hath borne the weight. 
I *■ The mountain weight, of all our human guilt ; 
Whose voice was poured through clark-leaved Olivet 

In one wild prayer for strength to die ; who spilt 
Thy princely blood — blood Avithout taint of guilt — 

Long lineaged blood and older than the sun. 
Or any star, or angel pulse that hilt 

Of wrathful sword had warmed ere was beo-un 
That crystal wonder eon-told to wide renown. 

Pirst bloom of past eternity ! thy love 

Still fruits and blossoms in the vernal glow 

Of these our fateful years. The forms that move 
In legioned m^Tiads, shadowy, slow. 

Into the death-marged realms of silence, go 

Heeded of love alive forevermore. 

While hano'iiiir iu the shades of that last woe 

Wrought in Golgotha's place, thy soufs eye bore, 

Clear imajred, all — from, face and heart to burning core 



Eisen, alive ! all hail ! mild as the light 

Of the young day that treads o'er violets. 
Earliest blown of forms that earth bedight ; 

(133) 



134 BVPERT wise: a poetic bomaxce. 

Yet awful as the thunder-flame that jets 
From heaven's storm-parted hps when wrath begets 

A judgment speech ! I clothe me in that first, 
Lifted from winter death, like violets, 

But from that last, when like a sword it thirst, 
Hide me, gray cross — hide me from that last lightning 
burst ! 

Loud speaks a voice whose sacred accents say. 

Or seem : " lowly taught, thou canst not see 
What wonders crowd thy path, by uight, by day ; 

How near unnumbered hosts encompass thee. 
What throbbing chords thou daily treadest on 

That wake in discord or in harmony ; 
Thy searching sight meets here its horizon. 

But yon blue heights thy newborn thoughts shall 
tread, 
With suns for stepping-stones, till glory crown thy head ! " 

II. 

The day's red orb dropped through the quivering haze 
That wrapped the marge of Yazoo's cypress glades. 

While long slant splendors wrouglit their golden maze 
From mount to stream, and bridged the abyss of sliades 

Adown which fell the white-robed thistle mote, 
Blown from the copses of the hills. Echo 

Woke all her o-enii from their caves and cauo'ht 

o o 

The rising harmonies, and far below 
And high above the listening crags, each frauglit 
With elfin changes, threw them note by note. 



BUPEiiT wise: a poetic romance. 135 

With crown of sweat about his brow, and feet 

Grown sore and wcar}^ in the day-long toil, 
Into his wild the hermit made retreat ; 

Slowly he climbed the shadowy slope, and, while 
In one wide curtain from the orbless sky 

The silver twilight hung, passed o'er the stile 
And to his cot. 

Is knowledge what we deem, 
Or what our skeptic souls would give it name? 

Is there no over-soul to tell us Avhen we dream, 
If dream we true or false ? There bides to claim 

Our feal to law, and smites if heeded not. 
Conscience, so called for lack of better word ; 

But consciousness is ampler, unbegot, 
Begetting every child .of sense and thought ; 

May not it, then, some time, somehow, have heard 
Unlawful things, laying a feeble ear 

Against the walls of God's great seercl house ? 
One law is regnant, binding far and near 

The 2Darts of this wide whole, the universe, 
Into a kinshij) of desires that rouse 

A universal thought, and so its course 
Must sometimes glow with unspent thoughts of God 

While through the lowliest heart it burns. 

A calm 
Foreboding of delight, Avhile yet he trod 

The pillared woods, grew in the hermit's mind ; 
The eager air seemed laden with the balm 

And spices of a rifled tomb, and, swift and kind, 



136 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Disparted souls seemed moving toward tlieir rest. 

A pulse of angel pinions rustling nigh, 
Of angel breathings low, his soul confessed 

As to the cot he passed ; yet mortal eye, 
Since at the lonely tomb of Bethany 

The Son of Mary stood, was never smote 
With wonder like the hermit's owned. Lo ! there 

The death couch stood, but all un wrought 
The tale it lately told. vSmoothed down with care, 

The rustic robes were o'er the grass- mat spread ; 
The water cruise stood emptied of its draught ; 

The chair on which the garments of the dead 
At eve before had lain now owned to naught 

Save the torn scarf that girt his loins at death. 
A foot-print on the wind-dashed fallow pressed, 

And fellowed in the sand and sumac .heath 
That balked the runlet's course, told how his guest, 

Reviving, passed into the waste again ; 
And so the hermit moved him to and fro 

Between the cot and unfilled grave, still fain 
To find a clew to something less than marvel's awe. 

Meantime into a sjdvan space, a lawn 

Of nature planned, above which burned the flame 
Of autumn leaves, at point five leagues removed 

From the smit city, slowl}^ moving, came 
The low wheels of a diligence. The hands 

That reined the lagging jades trembled with age, 
A gray-haired Ethiop's — prince of mangrove lands 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 137 

On the dark coast; j^roved in long bondage, 
1^0 w free, but held by stronger bond as hers 

Who sate, pale-faced and weary, in the coach : 
In like he served through all her maiden years 

The mother till a bride, then bound, in such 
Till death ; therefrom the daughter, faithful still. 
Now halting, from the clear wave of a rill 

He raised a full cup to the pale hps' touch 
And stood, with head made bare, waiting his lady's will. 

Drink, pale-lipped Madeline, the heaven-pledged cup! 

God brewed it in the summer cloud and stored 
Deep in the summer caves, whence unto hoj)e 

A full libation naiads' hands have poured 
From lily urns its coolness forth ; no dregs 

Are in its depths, for'lo! is passed for aye 
Thy bitter cup. ]^o more thy spirit begs 

In vain a joyous boon. Drink to the day 
Of happy love — the day that was — that is! 
Two wonders in the earth beneath are seen. 

Transcending all — a soul that keeps its bliss 
Through stainless faith and one that finds again 

Its bliss through purifying love. Drink deep, 
O stainless maid ; drink to the purified. 

The chastened one, whose shining feet now keep 
Glad movement, hasting swiftly to thy side ; 

He lives whose soul is brother unto thine ! 
The fallen leaves betray his coming steps ; 

The leaves above, with accents half divine, 
Eepeat his name. " He lives ; he comes ; he leaps," 



138 BUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

They cry. Eeceive thine exile into rest. 
A sudden start ; a maiden's fitful cry ; 

Eyes turned to eyes, and pale lips unto pale lips pressed.. 
Too long the care, too great the ecstasy 
Of hope revived — swoon, gentle heart, not die ! 

'Tis well, 'tis well ; thyself shalt wake to rest ! 

Like the slow tide of tropic streams deep steeped 

In the warm odors of the falling molds 
Of thousand drooping boughs, eve onward crept. 

Balm sweetened, toward the west. The primrose folds 
Its waxen leaves to ope again when dies 

The regal sun in twilight's holy shade. 
So oped the folded lids of love-blessed eyes 

That might not drink its brightness wonder rayed. 

" Back from the dead," the white lips breathed, when first 

They caught the vital air, " back from the dead 
Thou art returned to me. Whiit power has burst 

Thy double bond, for free my soul doth read 
Thou art — alive and free, thrice free? " They spake 

CTlad-voiced,when he, the youth, speechless till then^ 
Replied : " Yea, back from more than dead ; awake 

To more than life — to light, to liberty 
Of those high thoughts we early proved ; made such 

Through knowledge of that Christ by whom I stand. 
And shall through future days, till magic touch 

Of the arch-seraphim Ithuriel's wand 
Shall lift me to the height of his tall form. 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 139 

Thou hast done well that thou didst come. Our feet 
Are not misled, I deem, if faith conform 

To His fair will who did our faith beget, 
And yet so late I read that will ; the peace 

Therefrom so new, perchance I do construe 
Somewhat above that it may bind or please ; 

Howbeit, hence it led me on, and true 
I find my hope that thou art still in life, 

And that the old-time warmth abides within 
The twilight circle of thine eyes. Joy rife, 

A thousand passion fires within me burn 
And visions of the sunnjr years to be ; 

But summer waits till winter's soul expires, 
So to a tale of wand'rings list and learn 

Whence rose my sin-.scathed soul to light and lease 
Of nobler walk. 

" How long, or by what chance 
I wandered in the hoary wild, ere ease 

Of pain, or thought's clear vision broke the trance 
Of mind, I may not say ; all misty is 

From day thy tender eyes looked on me ill 
Till yester dawn. 'Twas then I knew surj^rise, 

And fear o'ertook my soul. I Avoke with still 
A thought that thou wert nigh ; but other eyes 

Regarded me : a hermit to his cot 
Had borne me, and with brother's tenderness 

Had watched my malady, that seemed begot 
Of death, and death seemed close and hard to press 

The bated life, until he deemed I died 



140 EUPEBT wise: a poetic bomance. 

And laid his finger tips upon my lids 

In office kind. Deep peace was multiplied 
That hour within 5 for all that morn, as hides 

The feathered waif when storms are loud, my soul 
Had hid in prayer ; and voices of the days 

We love, blown from the aspen-shaded knoll 
Held by the brown-roofed chapel, where to praise 

And worshij) oft our childish feet were led, 
Came memory sweet upon ni}^ ear. I knew 

I lived, or deemed it so, yet for the- dead 
Was marked, and pulse and sentient life withdrew 

And hid them in the inner heart. 

" Slow paced, 
The hermit passed into the day, then reigned 

A tomb-like silence ; thence no more I traced 
The course of sense : a vision's light obtained 

Assent and clothed, like woven flame, my brain. 
Dreams have I known, in sleep, that led afar 

Through changes of the hidden world and pain 
Or joy sustained, but never such fair star 

Of trance or fancy led my sight. To rise 
I seemed, leaving my grosser part still prone 

Upon the hermit's couch, yet everywise 
Perfect the part that stood and j^assed alone 
Into a coast-land fringed with orange-groves, 
And goodly fair to look upon ; a glow 
Of ebbing day, like that wdiich now expires, 
Lent holy silence to the hour. ]\Iy steps 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE, 141 

Bent slowly downward to the sea that la2)ped 

With summer drowsiness the pebbly beach. 

I strained my eyes and heart to read a sign, 

A token of the over-soul that walks 

Through summer seas or breathes imperial strength 

Eeclining midst the mountain shades. One sail 

Whose j)ennant pointed toward the Isthmic coast. 

Through dark Campeachy's darker waste, was all 

The blue veil's misty folds allowed my sight ; 

Glowed not the light of eld that floated down 

The zodiacal paths into my soul, 

When in my own thy hand was pressed, now cold, 

I thought, beneath the upland's thymy sod. 

Thereat I hated life and feared the death 

I could not die. Through unfrequented ways 

I turned and climbed a wooded steep, hard by 

A soft-voiced stream that dropped, full- waved and clear, 

Into the deep Nirvana of the bay. 

Great oaks, moss-grown and century gnarled, rose high, 

And clasped in rugged armg, as lovers might 

Their circlet-plighted maids, magnolia-trees, 

Decked in the white wealth of their bridal pride. 

I had not thought since time began that foot, 

Save mine, had pressed that virgin mold ; an air 

Of the divine was there ; a censer smell 

Of woodland sacrifice and worship filled 

The balmy lapses of the tangled shade ; 

In the wood's deep heart, half hid by drooping vines 

Pendant from one dark-fronded ash that stood 



142 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

Taller than all bis kind, I came upon 

A lonely mound and sate me down in thought. 

" Darkness was near full and still descending night 

Her pall spread over heaven, till, like a soiil 

Let loose from clay, the moon leaped on the sea 

And poured its light through all the woven gloom 

Of vines and odorous boughs that shut me in. 

Clothed in the moonlight's splendor, one came forth 

From out the vine-screened depths, and, standing near, 

Made low obeisance and began to speak : 

* Fair greetings, son ! long have I waited here 

The coming of thy steps.' With this I looked 

More closely on his form. His flowing hair, 

White as the frost on Sitkan hills, fell full 

Upon his shoulders bare, athwart which hung 

A silken badge, with tinsel emblems set. 

His swarthy face was crossed by many a line 

That age, not care, had wrought. 

"After a pause. 
And stretching forth his hand, he thus went on : 
' My words are dark ; but know I am the last 
Of a long line of priestly men who stood 
AYithin the shrines of that Atlantic Isle 
Long perished, but renowned in all the earth. 
All wisdom of all times. Indie, Eg;yTDtic, 
Iranic and the roots of the fair tree 
Etruscan grown, concentered in that school 
Of wisest fellowship, and sense of things 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 143 

That, like the leaf, lie folded in the years 

Of dark futurity. At night — the last 

Of all her history, wherein to rise no more 

The fair isle sank into the hungry seas — 

A remnant of the holy house embarked 

And, heaven led, pitched on these shores and built 

Oreat mounds and many a sinuous tenq^le wall, 

In ruins long — I, the latest and alone. 

Have sat me here a hundred circling years, 

Poring the rolls of Ayar-manco-topa, 

4Sage of mighty soul. Therein 'tis writ 

That he who keeps the holy line alone 

Shall bide him in this vine-embowered place 

And forth conduct whoever sits him first 

Upon this grassy bosk---if so he will — 

Unto an isle far in the summer sea, 

Where leaps to kiss of living light the spray 

Of the clear Fount of Youth, whereof who drinks 

Forgets his present pain and evermore 

;Shall know his early dreams, and strength 

Wherewith to compass hope. And thou art first. 

■" Instant,"! cried, with wildness in my voice 

' Lead forth, O holy man, to that fair isle! 

Surely the gods are wise and kind, and fate 

Forgets its evil end ! I follow thee 

To that new hope, as one of blindness smit 

Follows the guiding hand through dangerous paths.' 

Few steps brought to the stream's green banks our feet ; 



144 RUPEET wise: a poetic bomance. 

And there, fast moored, beneath a rock that dripped 
With tinlding water drops, a white-winged boat, 
Made ready for the wave. Quickly enibarked. 
The moorings loosed, we pointed toward the deep. 
The land-breeze fed the trembling sails, and soon 
The keel leaped to the white arms of the surf. 
And sang a listless song of one soft note. 
The breeze rose to a gale — a gale from skies 
Of cloudless blue, o'erflecked with isles of fire. 
Behind the rattling sails and groaning spars 
The prophet sate to helm the bark and sang. 
Or chanted loud, a hymn of ancient lore. 
All wisdom of all times pulsed through its words, 
And hope of future days — not earth's, I ween. 
Much more he sang, but this mine ears retained : 

SO^G. 

1 " ' Man clings to time ! the ebbing tide sweeps out, 

Leaving a beach of trodden sands behind. 
Fringed with a range of hoaiy shades that flout 

Funereal banners in the sobbing wind ; 
And ghostly shapes walk in the dim inane. 

Dumb with the draught of Lethe's slumb'rous wave. 
Or lade the denser gloom with rueful plain, 

While dull Oblivion smiles to hear them rave. 

2 " ' Beyond that strip of coast-line trodden bare. 

Beyond the long gray swell of tossing gloom. 
Cinctured with fading sunlight here and there, 
Few know the secrets of that realm of doom ; 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 145 

Few souls have 2:)ierced beyond its middle wild, 
Still fewer heard the pulsing ocean beat 

In languid measures on the rocks up-piled, 
Its other shore, bereft of light and heat. 

" ' Some, jDassing thence, returned with thrilling tale 

Of what opposed their sight the journey on, 
Of marble wonders fallen low, with trail 

Of ruin everywhere ; of beauty gone 
From palaces and courts of mighty kings. 

Where fell the splendor of a thousand years 
Now falls the night of waste, and ivy clings 

To shrines once boasting royal worshipers. 

" ' We cling to life ! the ebbing tide sweeps out ; 

A leaden sky infolds the foaming deep ; 
Faint Occidental flushes dance about 

The far horizon, where the billows keep 
Their wavering line opposed against its blue ; 

A zodiacal gloam sifts through the haze 
And timeward falls, with weird and wasted hue ^ 

Dies on the strand or on the distant maze. 

" 'These be the tokens of a sunken sun 

And of the fading day, whose orbed rays. 
Paling from narrower skies, have but begun 

To weave the woofed splendors of the days 
Immortal named. Yet still we cling to life, 

And cast the anchor, xnoved by doubt's alarm 
To hear the ocean break in fitful strife 

Or see the night-racks fly before the storm ! 

li! 



146 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

6 " ' Dank are the landward shades and wet with dew 

The feathery fronds, outlined against the mist, 
Whose leaden zone gains surely on the view. 

Launch forth into the deep, though fears resist! 
The Happy Isles and Lotus Coasts are hid 

Far in the watery wastes. Launch forth to peace ! 
The sun-dyed clouds foretype thy joy and bid 

As Argonauts to seek the Golden Fleece ! ' 

"The bark swept on before the sleepless wind 

And slipped, at morn, into a waste of reefs 
Green with the coral palm and ivies twined 

About the tropic beach ; tall reeds and sheafs 
Of lush green grass whispered above the sea. 

Fair-plumaged birds battled with burnished wings 
The warm-breathed gale, and all things glad and free 

Told of a summer in whose fullness springs 
All rapture of delight that, passing into song, 

To thralldom charms the list'ning soul. The day 
Had faded half and, falling deep among 

The lessening banks, the winds had died away ; 
But in a current of the sea the boat 

Was drifting toward a mist-veiled coast with hue 
Of purpling light beyond. As bubbles float 

Upon the stream, we floated on and drew 

Our course hard on a rocky cove and threw 
The anchor by the shore. The sinking sun 

Stretched forth his beamy hands and held the mist 
High o'er the Happy Isle, when brightly shone 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 147 

Its nameless beauty on our sight. I kissed 
The mossy rocks and left my feeble lips 
Buried a moment in the cooling dew, 
When lo ! a sound of gurgling water drew 
My fancy toward the inner isle. My heart 

Beat like a hunted stag's ; hoj^e burned anew 
In every breath : waters of youth that part 
The soul from all its evil fears flowed near. 
Led by the priest, soon to the welling wave 

I came and stood, feasting desire. Light clear, 
And deep as heaven's blue well, it seemed and gave 

Eeflected wonders from its depths. I stooped 
To drink, but ere my lips had touched the wave 
It shrank and died, and moistless sand instead 
Filled the deep cave. I rose, and all the isle 

Was changed into a waste of sand that spread 
From shore to shore ; nor sign of life the while, 
Nor sound of living thing, save the dark priest. 
And he, a shadow grown, faded to mist 
And passed, like all my hopes, away. A voice 

Came with the last faint trace of shade that told 
The outline of his form : ' Hollow the noise 
Of human pride and wisdom late or old ; 
Death is the tree and death must be the fruit.' 

" Prone to the earth I fell and laid in dust 
The lips deceived and cried. Above the brute 

No whit is man; nobler in form, with trust 

In higher things, but both go downward to the earth.' 



148 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

The heart within me died, and seemed to blend 

With parent clay, resolved to primal birth ; 
But since, in death or kind relief, must end 

Our bitterest woe, I waited, hoping naught, 
AVhen one with burning finger smote my cheek ; 

Whereat I rose, and lo! a change was wrought 
In all the isle, that seemed no isle, nor bleak 

And waste, but a most sacred land and strewed. 
Toward every wind of heaven, with wonders wide ; 

Its vales and terraced hills, of old, to. tread 
And the swift toil of thousands woke with pride 

Of fruitful years ; but now no mortal fares, 
Or shall fare, through forever. The wild palm 

In leagues of vacancy hails the soft airs 
That breathe a scent of terebinth and balm 

Over the dust of many a ruined pile 
That swells from the smooth stretch of goodly plains^ 

Or keeps the stately shape and dim profile 
Of ancient grandeur, slowly wrought in reigns 

Of peaceful kings. There was nor voice nor sound 
What time I stood with fate contending there. 

But pain was grown to stark despair and bound 
With rueless chains. 

" Lo ! where with aimless stare 

I gazed, a mount sloped upward toward the skies 
Against which stood a cross, and round it played 

A mystic light, fanned to a glow by sighs 
That angels breathed — sighs of desire, not made 

Of grief. 



RUPERT wise: a POETIC ROMANCE. 149 

" Down from the mount a Form moved slow, 
Until it stood and looked upon my face ; 

Benignly calm it gazed and spake in low 
And measured tones : 'Arise, thou fallen soul ; grace 

Bids thee rise. Thy will has died, but lives ; I 
Who speak, the living Christ, shall make thee stand. 

I am thy strength unto eternity.' 

" I seemed to quaif a cup held in a hand 

To me invisible : a cup I knew — 
I could but know the truth — that kings and seers 

And mighty ones of old had quaffed. The dew 
Distilled in Paradise and sweetened airs 

Blown from its hills across the lily marge 
Of life's clear wave had not more grateful proved 

To' my faint soul. What owned I then ? Deep, large, 
And calm as ether's sea, heaven's fullness moved 

Uj)on my sense, and moved with every draught. 
O holy cup ! O very grail ! I drank 

And, drinking, felt within me power and craft 
Of evil motions die. Not then a blank. 

As I had prayed a time before, my life 
Of darker thoughts and appetite, but force 

And argument sustaining trust : a strife 
With doubt, and ever so to be. 

" What course 
The spirit's currents ran was changed. The note 

Discordant in our harmony of love 
Was drowned in faith's full-measured song. I wote 



150 RUPERT wise: a poetic romance. 

That man is spirit more than flesh : I strove, 
Therefore, no more, and mind o'er flesh was staid. 

I knew the kingly words of Him whose hands. 
Once pierced, sustained the universe. He laid 

On me (O awful joy !) those kingly hands. 
And all His soul passed into mine. I made 

Thereat to rise, spurning the desert's sands, 
But woke that moment in the hermit's cot ; 

And all is well ! Ah ! do we sit this hour 
In Paradise? and is thy face unwrought 

Of earthly hue, and angel's made, that power 
Of beauty soul-consuming it reveals ? 

Afar in joyless paths I vainly sought 
To find what this good hour my bosom fills : 

I wake from trance of morbid fear to thought 
Of those fair days wherein our wedded souls 

Shall walk to triumph of their early dream, 

And lo ! our token : fades the twilight's bolder gleam, 
But in his own clear light the Star of Evening rolls ! ' 

L'ENYOI. 

The fortnight of my tale is done ; I seal 
This Book of Life and, sealing, steal 
Into that silence whence I came. He cares 
Who smote these strings vibrant to many airs, 
He cares but little for the fleeting praise 
That lives on transient lips. He sought to raise 
A beacon by a storm-swept coast. If there 
Some sin-tossed soul shall see and fare 
To hope and God, he is repaid. 



BUPERT wise: a POETIC BOMANCE, 151 

My ears 
Approve a sound of myriad feet ; the years 
That are to be reverberate with song 
And paean shout of conquering hosts that throng 
The fields of strife and, thronging, turn the tide 
Toward victory's perfect day. Faith, Hope abide, 
And Love ; and, led by Him, the living Form, 
I send this arrow at the Python worm. 



The End. 



